Audiotour Fethiye with Dmitry Makarov

Sights are usually served up to the modern tourist in a concentrated form. He can find out in advance what awaits him, at home on YouTube by way of a dozen travel vlogs, very briefly, and - if you're lucky - brightly, with jokes and dancing… but very rarely will you meaningfully and lovingly be told about the "most important thing". What is "the most important thing"? For example, in Fethiye, is it the Lycian rock tombs? The old market at Paspatur? And that’s not all: you can go to the beaches of Ölüdeniz and put an imaginary checkmark on an imaginary list: “I was in the city of Fethiye for two hours”. However, two hours can be spent in very, very different ways, right?

Fethiye is a relatively young city. Most of its modern inhabitants are descendants of immigrants from other places (even countries) who ended up here about a hundred years ago as a result of geopolitical catastrophes which will be discussed later. The city received its name only in 1924. However, architecturally it is even younger: the terrible earthquake of 1957 destroyed a lot of it and opened a new chapter in urban construction. And ultimately, the economic boom and the tourist boom completely changed the face of Fethiye. Over the past thirty years, the city has grown to swallow up the surrounding villages.

The urban population of Fethiye in 1945 was just over 4,000 people. At the end of the century it had grown to 50,000. In 2020, together with the new areas, it has 167,000 inhabitants. Tourists, of whom about ten million a year visit (I swear, this is the most recent figure!), import their own habits - fish and chips, new sports, foreign languages.

However, if one is to slow down and take a closer look at the city, one sees that it is not quite so simple. For the more inquisitive traveller, Fethiye offers a dizzying leap into the past. The city will reel you back century after century, name after name, civilization after civilization.

Lycians? Romans? Alexander the Great? Byzantines? Ottomans? Who has not been here! But Fethiye is also a window into Türkiye’s modern life, with its amazing everyday culture.

After a brief acquaintance with the city, you can safely say, “Yes, I was in Fethiye!”... or in Fetiye (closer to the Turkish pronunciation).

Throughout the tour I, the poet and writer Dmitry Makarov, will be with you.

We have prepared this walk for you together with the residents of the city of Fethiye and the city’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The authors and performers of the musical accompaniment are the GANA group.