A SIGNATURE campaign was launched last Saturday with the aim of highlighting the public’s unease at the potential beach privatization of Third Beach.

Turkish and expat residents joined the demonstration, organized by the Didim Democrat Platform, at the Poseidon Statue on Main Beach, with a petition being created to indicate the public’s protests.

The demonstration was called over ongoing fears that plans to rezone Third Beach into a haven for more hotels could mean the beach being turned into a private bay.

A formal challenge in the Aydın Administrative Court is presently ongoing to get the plan struck off. The court has appointed three technical experts to provide a report on the matter.

The Platform has called for the cancelling of the project.

A spokesman said the proposals for the area were completely out of scale of what was at Third Beach in reality.

He said: “The plans foresee intense development which is out of balance with what is there in reality. We believe this is not in the interests of Didim residents. We do not want this plan and have sought to get it cancelled.”

Didim Association president Mehmet Soysalan said the plan seeks to do away with the public access to the blue-flagged Third Beach and “destroy people’s rights to freely benefit from the sea”.

Central government wants to re-allocate the bay for tourism, with 18 ‘touristic’ ventures.

The plan, apparently endorsed by state tourism officials, outlines the development at the Third Beach area between the Altinkent site and Didim Beach Hotel. It envisages that restaurants already trading there will remain, but foresee the wasteland that drops down from the feeder road being built on.