SLOW CITIES OF TURKEY

At times, we all need a place to escape from the busy daily life of today’s modern world. Turkey offers you a chance to relax in a serene atmosphere with its towns included in the ‘Cittaslow’m movement.

Cittaslow is a movement that was founded in Italy in 1999. The inspiration for Cittaslow was the Slow Food organization that moves against the fast-food culture. In simple terms, Cittaslow towns aim to be great places to live, work and visit. Each Cittaslow town acts as a mechanism to bring local people from all areas of life together to work together for the good of their town.

The Italy-based Cittaslow International Coordination Committee has awarded four Turkish towns with the internationally prestigious “Cittaslow” (Slow City) title for enriching local traditions, protection of the environment and other community-focused activities. “We established contact with the first Cittaslow of Turkey, Seferihisar (in İzmir), and carried out activities with non-governmental organizations for two years and then applied to the Cittaslow International Coordination Committee in February,” said Ahmet Çalca, mayor of Akyaka, one of the winning towns in the Aegean province of Muğla. “The title of slow city symbolizes the life standard of the city. Although Akayaka is a coastal town, it is an important place because it carries its own values to the future,” he said, adding that they were proud Akyaka was elected as a slow city.

In addition to Akyaka, Taraklı, a small town in the western province of Sakarya; Gökçeada, an Aegean island in the northwestern province of Çanakkale, and Yenipazar in the western province of Aydın, were all declared Turkey’s newest Cittaslow members at the organization’s general assembly in Poland.

The Cittaslow title was warmly welcomed in Taraklı. The city’s most important feature is that it does not allow immigrants and that the crime rate is almost non-existent. Mayor Tacettin Özkaraman said the town had been settled since 2,000 B.C. “Lots of civilizations have existed in the town … There are houses, mansions and narrow streets with cobblestone pavements. All these things have existed for centuries; this is why Taraklı received the title of slow city,” he said, adding that the town’s name had become increasingly well-known over the past 10 years.