Welcome to the first Fethiye Times News of 2019.
News
Man falls to his death at Butterfly Valley
A man fell to his death at Butterfly Valley in Faralya on Friday.
When 30-year-old Alp Aslan Veizoğlu, who set off for work on foot, did not turn up, his colleagues reported him missing to the Jandarma at Ölüdeniz.
Fethiye District AKUT and Jandarma teams were mobilised to search for Veizoğlu however, due to bad weather and loss of daylight, a thorough search could not be performed.
The following morning, when the weather cleared, the body was discovered at the bottom of a cliff.
Veizoğlu was pronounced dead at the scene. The body was recovered and taken to the Fethiye State hospital morgue for an autopsy.
Source: gercekfethiye.com
Turkey’s Lira Kicks Off 2019 on the Wrong Foot
The Turkish lira is off to a bad start to the year.
The currency has shed more than 3.5 percent of its value against the dollar in the first three days of 2019. Not only is that the most in the world, it’s also almost twice as much as the runner up, the Swedish krona.
Biggest Losers
Turkish lira weakens more than any other major peer as 2019 kicks off
Whether investors are getting wary over the prospect of premature monetary easing after inflation slowed again in December, or they’re simply closing out long positions after a spectacular run last quarter, is still not clear.
But after months of calm trading, price action on the dollar-lira cross – compounded by Wednesday night’s “flash crash” – is a sign that trading could turn choppy as local elections in March approach.
Sources: Bloomberg/Yahoo
Plastic bag usage drops by 70 percent on first day of charge regulation
The number of single-use plastic bags used by shoppers has plummeted by 70 percent in one day after the introduction of a nationwide charge in Turkey on January 1st.
“On the first day of the implementation, we have seen a decrease of up to 70 percent for plastic bag usage in some places. We will see the results more clearly when we announce the figures in 10 to 15 days,” Ahmet Varır, the head of a department spearheading the regulation at the Environment and Urbanization Ministry, told state-run Anadolu Agency on January 2nd.
Grocery stores can set a price higher than 25 kuruş (a quarter of one Turkish Lira) for a single plastic bag, but cannot sell it less than this price, according to Varır.
Grocery stores charging more money for the plastic bag would have to declare the revenue generated and give it to the government, he said.
“Grocery stores making profit from the plastic bag is not a matter of discussion. The regulation does not allow this,” he added.
“Before the charge, customers would use three to four bags despite buying one item. Now they bring their own bags or boxes,” a grocer said.
Under a new government regulation, grocery stores in Turkey are obligated to charge customers 25 kuruş — 0.25 Turkish Liras — for a single plastic bag. The regulation was introduced on Jan. 1 in a bid to reduce litter.
Each year, tons of plastic, which take hundreds of years to break down, get dumped into oceans and seas, posing a huge danger to marine environment.
Source: Daily Hürriyet
Tax cuts on several items extended, bridge, highway tolls hiked
The Turkish government has extended the previously introduced tax cuts on several items, including house sales, furniture and white goods for another three months until the end of March this year in an effort to stimulate economic activity.
The value-added-tax (VAT) in housing sales and the furniture sector that were slashed from 18 percent to 8 percent will continue in the first three months of 2019.
Moreover, the special consumption taxes on domestic appliances were already suspended and this measure will also remain in place until the end of March.
As part of the same move, special consumption tax rates for motor vehicles with engines under 1600cc were cut to 15 percent and the government decided to keep the tax reduction for another three months this year.
The latest data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) showed that the annual inflation eased to 21.6 percent in November from 25.24 percent in October.
Meanwhile the private operators of the Osmangazi Bridge and Gebze-İzmir highway hiked the toll prices.
Accordingly, the toll price for the Osmangazi Bridge, which is the fourth-longest suspension bridge in the world and the second longest in Europe over the Marmara Sea, has been increased to 103.05 Turkish Lira ($19.2) from 71.75 effective from January 1st.
The toll for the Altınova-Orhangazi section of the Gebze-Orhangazi-İzmir has been hiked to 11.5 lira from 5.5 lira and the toll price for the Gemlik- Bursa Northern Toll Booth section has been increased to 15.65 lira from the previous 7.40 lira.
We have no information at this time as to whether the toll for the Göcek tunnel will be increased.
The government also has increased tax on alcoholic beverages.
An additional 13.4 percent special consumption tax has been added on alcoholic beverages. That followed the 15.5 hike in the special consumption tax for alcoholic beverages in July.
As a result, total tax on a 70 cc bottle of increased from 70.37 lira to 79.86 lira of tax while the tax on a 50 cc can of beer rose from 4.59 lira to 5.21 lira.
Source: Hürriyet Daily News
Certificate of Habitation application campaign extended by six months
The Buildings and Iskan (Certificate of Habitation) application campaign which was due to end on 31st December 2018 has been extended by another six months. The application covers structures that are unlicensed or have additional constructions contrary to the license.
To date, 9.5m people have applied generating 14 billion TL in income.
Sources: hurriyet.com.tr/Voices Newspaper
Snow arrives on the mountains above Seydikemer
During the winter, the rain fellas as snow on the high ground. It’s no surprise that with the amount of rain we’ve had recently, that there is now a good covering of snow on the mountains above Seydikemer.
Locals travelled to the mountains to enjoy snowball fights in the freshly fallen snow.
Muğla Metropolitan Municipality and Seydikemer Municipality teams cleared the roads throughout the day to provide access.
Source: Muğlatürk
Sport
Thank you to Brian Lloyd for the sport updates.
Fethiyespor
Fethiyespor are currently at camp in Antalya training hard for the second half of the season.
Here they are training on the fifth day of camp.
Coach Tarık Daşgün started training with 1.5 hours of running. Power, strength and endurance training were at the forefront in the morning training.
Fethiyespor Technical Director also included three players from the U19 team in the Antalya camp.
The team will also be playing a number of preparation matches.
Transfers
Fethiyespor are taking advantage of the transfer window and have brought in some new players.
The next league match is:
The second half of the season starts on the 20th January 2019.
For more information about Fethiyespor please visit Fethiyespor Yabancilar on Facebook.
Lokman Hekim Fethiye Belediyespor Basketbol
Lokman Hekim Fethiye Belediyespor lost their away match against Mavişehir Spor on Saturday. The final score was 70– 59.
For more information about Lokman Hekim Fethiye Belediyespor please visit them on Facebook.
Turkish Lira (TL) exchange rates
The British Pound bought 6.79 TL by the close of business on Friday. The week before it was selling for 6.70 TL.
The US Dollar bought 5.33 TL by the close of business on Friday. The week before it was selling for 5.27 TL.
The Euro bought 6.07 TL by the close of business on Friday. The week before it was selling for 6.03 TL.
ISource: FxexchangeRate.com
Weather Forecast
Here’s your weather forecast for the week ahead.
The post Fethiye Times News – Week Ending 05 January 2019 appeared first on Fethiye Times.