My holiday in a neighbor country ...
I can’t recognize my youth’s Bodrum anymore. Bodrum, where I spent only a small part of my holiday, is glaring with millions of dollars of investments. Seemingly, that small and lovely fishing town characterized by the author Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı (aka Fisherman of Halicarnassus) has gone with the wind. Astaş Company has made a major investment in Bodrum with a project constructing luxurious villas on 600 acres of land in Paradise Bay, one of the popular stops of the famous Blue Voyages. Once, I came across an interview with Astaş Board Chairman Vedat Aşçı in a newspaper. Aşçı was saying in the interview that the project, developed with the Mandarin Oriental Resort, would cost $600 million and 60 percent of the villas were already sold. He said their customers included member of Saudi Arabia’s royal family and the rich of the Gulf countries, along with the leading business people of Istanbul. According to Aşçı, whose tourism investments in Istanbul