On 4 October 2008 World Animal Day, the peoples of the world will come together at the same time to tell Turkey to stop animal cruelty. They will gather in front of Turkish diplomatic missions around the world and send a strong warning to Turkey to terminate the killing of its stray animals.

Their counterparts in the UK will gather in London at 14:00 on this day in front of the Turkish Airlines office at 25 Pall Mall, and march peacefully to the Turkish Embassy.

Animal activists around the world have tried on many occasions to engage in a constructive dialogue with the Turkish authorities and improve the condition of the stray animals in the country. However, dialogue has achieved nothing. In fact, the purging of stray dogs continues in Didim as you read this.

On 4 October 2008, Turkey will understand that its treatment of stray animals will no longer be tolerated in any corner of the world.

Attend the London rally, and let it be known that you too want the suffering of Turkish stray animals to come to an end once and for all.

Visit the event page to get in touch with the hosts:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=23057604334

For every one of us, there is a special place called “home”. An almost sacred place. For the stray dogs of Altinkum, that “home” was the Altinkum beach in Didim.

It is not an ideal home for a dog granted – but it was a home of sorts for them. A place they could call home.

That is until recently when the local authorities of Didim decided that the strays could no longer make it home there. In their view, the strays had to go.

And where did they go? It is with great despair that we can confirm at least three of them were dumped in an area of Didim known as Seyrantepe.

And here is Seyrantepe for you ladies and gentlemen… A no man’s land. A perfect place for stray dogs to die of starvation… Not even a drop of food to find…

The three dogs were spotted by a local animal rights volunteer who knew all three of them from the Altinkum beach. They were running around like crazy, presumably trying to find their way back home to the Altinkum beach.

We seek justice for these dogs immediately. We want them returned to the Altinkum beach right this minute. It is their home, nobody can take it away from them.

Write to the heartless authorities of Didim right now and tell them to return our dogs to their home:

iletisim@didim.gov.tr, didimbelediyesi@yahoo.com, aydin@icisleri.gov.tr

The mayor of Didim is directly responsible under the law for the welfare of the stray dogs in his jurisdiction. Call his direct line to remind him of his responsibilities which he apparently forgot about:

Mayor Mumin Kamaci Office: +90 256 811 25 60

Mayor Mumin Kamaci Cell Phone: +90 0506 600 13 13

This is our solemn pledge to the British residents of Altinkum, Didim in Turkey who are putting up a heroic fight against the criminal actions of the local authorities of the town as you read this. They are putting up a heroic fight to stop the authorities from terminating the lives of hundreds of stray animals that live in Altinkum like this one.

You already know the dream team of local authorities that is in charge of Didim from this blog. Spot on to one of them – Ali Katirci, the governor of Didim. Katirci sentenced the stray animals of Didim to death, all on his own initiative. Death by starvation and dehydration. He decided that the strays of Didim do not deserve to live, and ordered them to be dumped in remote places where they will die a slow and horrible death. More hungry and more thirsty by the minute until they eventually die…

Here is what we know so far: 20 dogs have disappeared from the two main beaches of Altinkum, 14 dogs from another area, 9 from another, and two lots of about 6 from yet other areas. Unless they died already, they must be desperately searching right now for a sip of water under Didim’s heat.

Why Katirci, why? As a matter of fact, Katirci is violating every single animal protection act that there exists in Turkey from A to Z. Furthermore, he is also a violating a verbal order from a ministry of interior affairs official telling him to stop his brutal practices toward stray animals in Didim.

And the only ones resisting all this are a handful of British citizens who have made it home in Altinkum, Didim. They love Altinkum, they love Turkey. And they love Turkey’s strays. In fact, they set up a local shelter to take care of them.

Where they are helping abandoned dogs

Sick dogs

Puppies

and any dog that needs help…

And they are here to stay… They are here to stay and reverse the misfortune of Altinkum’s animals. But they cannot do it without your support. They cannot walk this alone. From here, we want to send them our promise that they will not have to:

Walk on through the wind

Walk on through the rain

Though your dreams be tossed and blown

Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart

And you will never walk alone

You will never walk alone..

Will you join them in their walk to stop Katirci? If so, please write to the Tourism Office of the Turkish Embassy in London, and tell them you simply refuse to travel to Turkey unless and until the lawlessness in Didim comes to an end.

Address: 4th floor, 29-30 St.James Street, SW1A 1HB

Telephone: 020 7839 7778, 020 7839 7802

Mail: info@gototurkey.co.uk

Dear Sir,

It is with despair and sadness that I read the following article in your newspaper.

http://www.didimtoday.com/local-news/altinkum-news/the-biggest-nuisance-in-altinkum-didim-beach.htm

I will try to be brief.

1. Getting the dogs off the beach and the streets will not solve the problem. Sterilizing the dogs and returning them to their territory will.
This apparently contrarian approach is the strategy adopted by the animal welfare law. Everything else is illegal, furthermore nothing else will work. Please read this for further information:

http://www.shkd.org/tr/neuter.html

2. The only reason why Didim is on the map today is because of British Tourism. It is to that public that your newspaper is addressed after all. Well.. British citizens are animal lovers as a whole. By applying illegal and inhumane policies you are shooting yourselves on the leg.

3. We are the publishers of a number of blogs and websites dedicated to the stray dog issue in Turkey
i.e. beykozkillers.wordpress.com
http://diekillervonbeykoz.wordpress.com
http://beykozkatili.wordpress.com

We also have Dutch, french and italian versions of those websites. Today, we have a combined readership of close to 61.000 individual readers… daily!

Today we have added a new blog to our portfolio http://didimkillers.wordpress.com/

From today, this blog will become the point of reference for news on Didim and Altinkum… in a matter of days it will be picked up by the search engines. Try google Beykoz Dogs:

http://www.google.com.tr/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=BgH&q=Beykoz+Muharrem+dogs&btnG=Search&meta=

or Muharrem Ergul (Mayor of Beykoz)

http://www.google.com.tr/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=rhH&q=Muharrem+Ergul+Beykoz+Mayor&btnG=Search&meta=

Mr. Ergul is not a happy man nowadays. Or maybe he is.. from a small time mayor he has gone to become the most famous turkish mayor in Europe, Europes most famous dog killer.

This is what will happen to Didim unless the municipality and media such as yourselves collaborate in solving the stray dog problem in a legal way. From this platform we can assure you we will do our very best to put Didim in the map (in a way you certainly will consider much more of a nuisance that those poor dogs at the beach..

I strongly suggest you hold a meeting with the local Animal Welfare charity and discuss the issue.

Kind regards

Matt Murdock

The Republic of Turkey Proudly Presents: Didim Killers

We are proud to introduce you the latest perpetrators in the dog-killing pandemic in Turkey: meet Didim killers.

The story behind the killers of Didim, a beautiful holiday town in the Aegean, is a disgustingly familiar one for Turkey. Round up or kill all the stray dogs in your area before tourists arrive. Use either one of these stupid excuses:

there is a rabies outbreak
the dogs are aggressive / danger to humans

It is also possible for these two excuses to be used in combination – reinforces the grounds for murdering stray dogs.

The story is the same across the holiday towns of Turkey – just substitute the names. So, let’s take a closer look at the names in this particular case.

Meet the mayor of Didim: Mümin Kamaci

Tel: +90 256 811 26 60

E-mail: didimbelediyesi@yahoo.com

Mr. Kamaci says he is “effortlessly laboring to turn Didim into a unique center for tourism, culture and peace” (read effortlessly laboring to get rid of stray dogs into that).

Meet the deputy-governor of Didim: Ali Katırcı

Tel: +90 256 811 37 25

E-mail: iletisim@didim.gov.tr

Mr. Katırcı is a lawyer by training. Granted, the curriculum did not include Turkey’s Animal Protection Act at the time he was studying. That particular act is recent, and makes it crystal clear that it is not possible to round up stray dogs and imprison them in shelters. He has some catching up to do with the literature. Mr. Katırcı can read this post if he wants to in English to find out about recent developments in the Turkish legal system; we know that he speaks English well as he studied in the United Kingdom between 1990-1991.

Meet the governor of Aydin (where Didim is a province of): Mustafa Talay.

Tel:+90 256 212 42 59

Email: aydin@icisleri.gov.tr

Mr. Malay was a police officer in the past. He has had a perfect career actually. He was sent abroad to the United Kindgom for 6 months in 1991 for training. In 1994, the Turkish parliament awarded him the “bureaucrat of the year” title.

Now, tell this dream team of local authorities to stop RIGHT NOW what is happening to the stray dogs of Didim. Tell them to stop inflicting misery upon Didim’s stray dogs.

And you know what? They are doing it in your name…

On Monday 16th June the street speakers in Didim blasted out a repeated message all day…

ALL the street dogs would be collected and taken to the local dog shelter, regardless of whether they had eartags, collars or not.

The council liaison animal officer confirmed to the Gen Sec of the Didim Friends of Animals Charity that this was what was going to happen, and she, as a member of the charity also, was as horrified and shocked as they were.

The reason apparently was because the Governor of Didim wanted it. It was discussed that this was an illegal action, that the dogs have been neutered and released in accordance with the decrees of the new laws, and they are back in the environment from where they came, correctly so, and it would be illegal to collect neutered dogs and take them to the shelter.

It would also be illegal to retain any dogs at the shelter til the end of summer as is proposed.

The charity charirman went to see the mayor and governor the next day, and in the presence of the vet who works for the council neutering the street dogs, the governor stated that he wanted all the dogs rounded up, especially the aggressive ones.

The vets assistant guessed there were complaints about 10-15 dogs. The governor said the complaints are all from British Tourists. The charity chairman also spoke to someone at the belediye, either the mayor or his assistant, who said it will be done because the governor wants it. The list of complainants was given to the vets assistant, who does the dog catching in Didim. The Gen Sec of the charity asked to see this list of British Tourists who complained…there were about 6 pages of names and signatures……. ALL Turkish! So the Governor is telling porkies! The Governor from Aydin spoke to him and was also told that the complaints are from British Tourists.
On Tuesday evening Kiki, Sandy and Max were collected from the main beach and incarcerated at the shelter…the reason? Kiki has APPARENTLY bitten 2 policemen (brave men no doubt..). Why her 2 boyfriends have also been taken is unknown. It seems they chase the police motorbikes, which is hardly surprising when the Police are the biggest culprits of kicking the dogs as they pass with revving engines. These 3 dogs were due to be euthanased on Thursday morning, as the charity committee said, they cannot be released out of their environment, cruel, and illegal, and they cannot stay at the shelter forever, and attempts have been made to home them, unsuccessfully, as they always return to the beach. Best for them, if they were put down!

The charity committee were at this point assuming there was some PROOF that they had all bitten someone…ie, anyone being bitten by a street dog would DEFINITELY go to the local hospital for a the free rabies vaccinations that are available…
However, it turns out that the vet who was going to put the dogs down has NOT seen any such report, so the charity committee members told him NOT to euthanase, as there was no reason to. These dogs should be returned to their rightful place on the beach.

The Chairman of the Fethiye animal charity was contacted by the the gen sec of the Didim charity and confirmed that all these actions are illegal.

The National Parks Department was contacted, and a representative visited on Thursday, but due to lack of information, was unable to meet with anyone from the charity. He will visit again on Friday morning, and hopefully that will be the end of it. He has already stated that a report will be made saying that the dog shelter is woefully inadequate, small and filthy, and not suitable for dogs to be kept for any length of time.

Reports that 8 dogs were euthanased on Wednesday came from the council animal liaison officer, but it seems these were very sick animals that were beyond treatment, so no further action will be taken there. The council ARE however breaking the law again with their dead animals, as they are thrown into rubbish bins, and not buried as the law decrees.
The responsible person at the shelter is the only full time worker, and he is mentally deficient. Another example of great HR policy!..

The vet is employed only to visit once a day, normally mornings, to perform neutering operations.

Any extra operations such as dogs injured by cars, dogs with penile or vaginal turmours requiring chemotherapy, bronchitis, eye infections, ear infections, and a variety of other treatable dog illnesses are all paid for by the charity, as is all the dry food provided for the shelter.

Didim Municipality tel: 256 – 811 26 60
Didim Municipality fax: 256 – 811 21 11
email: info@didim.bel.tr

Note: the lovely picture of the nice strays relaxing at the beach has been published without permission of its owner. Didim Newspaper. a web based publication in English who considers stray dogs a nuisance to be eliminated. Here is one of the “pearls” published by this online newspaper.. read it because it really defies belief, and we are not only referring to the poor grammar here, that newspaper must be edited by either a British teen with poor languages skills or an amateur Turkish journalist that learned his English at the local barber shop.

http://www.didimtoday.com/local-news/altinkum-news/the-biggest-nuisance-in-altinkum-didim-beach.htm