Syrians in Altinkum

Andrea Egleton

WE HAVE owned a house and had 15 years with family spending some wonderful times in Altinkum.

This year my husband returned for a week alone in November and decided to stay in the Pummakale Hotel beside the football astro pitch as he’s been having a tooth implant with a local dentist.

He returned with sad tales of being the only English person in the hotel as it was being used amongst many other hotels as a transit place for Syrian refugees fleeing to Kos.

24hrs each day buses brought Syrians to the hotel where they were given food and then shipped onto another bus for their onward journey.

My husband came back with stories of Syrian beggars along Ataturk Boulevard, and gangs of Syrian men huddled along the main beach seafront.

I’m afraid English holiday makers will not want to spend their holidays in hotels where every other person is passing through on their onward journey to Europe.

My husband felt sorry for the Syrians as they had no idea where they would end up, none would acknowledge or even look at him during his weeks stay at the hotel.

I really hope that Altinkum will not be like this in the summer as with tourist numbers already falling and stories like this coming from our sleepy little resort, it does not bode well.