PRESENT DAY IN ANTALYA

From 1980, Antalya entered upon a period of extremely rapid development. The climate, the area’s natural beauty and new tourism investment have increased the influx of people into the city in recent years. At Ahatlı, Masa Dağı, Yaranmaz  (Lara) Konyaaltı and Hurma new areas of settlement have become built up very quickly. In the middle of the city, modern shopping centers have been built while high – rise buildings have mushroomed in Lara, the Meltem district and Konyaaltı. The 45 meter wide 100. Yıl Boulevard which cuts the city in two along an east-west axis and new eased the city’s traffic problems to a great extent.

The Parks and Gardens Directorates of the Greater Antalya Municipality and its sub-municipalities of Muratpaşa, Konyaaltı and Kepez have decorated the city’s newly-opened children’s parks, the central division of main streets, street corners and squares with palm trees and flowers.

The Karaalioğlu Park, the Atatürk Youth, Culture and Arts Park, the Atatürk Park and the Hasan Subaşı Culture park have come to resemble botanical gardens. The first 400,000 m2 section of the culture Park was completed in 1997. The park has a waterfall of 13,000 m2 made of artificial rock with underwater lighting. There are also three small lakes crossed by bridges of steel and timber. With its country coffeehouse, children’s playgrounds, greenery and gardens filled with hundreds of different types of flowers, the Hasan Subaşı Culture Park is a self-sufficient area for rest and recreation.

The Antalya Culture Center was opened in 1996 and has since hosted cultural and artistic events suck as theatrical, cinematic and polyphonic music performances, ballet, panel discussion and lectures. With its 338-seater Perge hall and 822-seater Aspendos hall, this modern building has an important places in the city’s artistic and cultural life and is equipped with the most up-to-date sound and lighting systems.

Antalya which is determined to make its mark is fair and congress center  on October 1 1997. Ten days after the opening of the center, it hosted the 11^th World Forestry Congress. The structure occupies an area of about 4500 m2 and has two floors, one of them being a basement. The pyramid is covered by a space age roof made of heat-resistant glass panels. The Glass Pyramid Sabancı Fair and Congress Center has three halls, Toros (capacity 2500), Meltem (440) and Düden (330). Despite having been designed for congresses, the Toros hall can also accommodate 1500-stand fairs and exhibitions. All the halls are equipped with state-of-the-art sound and lighting technology.

The Glass Pyramid Sabancı Fair and Congress Center has become the pride not only of Antalya but of the whole of Turkey. The wholesale fruit and vegetables which existed for many years in the heard of the city has been moved to a group of modern reinforced concrete shops to the north of the city center. Now truck and tractors laden with fruit and vegetables carry the produce of the growers to the wholesale market via the ring road. The wholesale market, established alongside the Organised Industrial Zone, has made the city heave a sigh of relief by removing the struck from its center.

The Antalya local administration has embarked upon a number of important projects for the 21^st Century to be built in the center of the city, to project to bring a new image to Konyaaltı, one of the world’s most beautiful shorelines, and the Kalekapı and Lara projects which are being completed stage by stage. Antalya is a city of opportunity from an economic point of view. With billons of Turkish Lira in tourism investment, it is the tourism center of Turkey. The climate is warm and access is easy.

It is enwrapped by historical wealth and natural beauty. Additionally it is Turkey’s depot for early vegetables and fruit. The Mediterranean Organised Industrial Zone, 35 km. from the city, is full of non-population factories making up what is known as ’’industry without chimney’’. The Free Zone constructed adjacent to the port of Antalya has greatly enlivened the city’s commerce. The Setur Marina is a haven which repairs, maintains and accommodates yacht during the winter and provides open access to the Mediterranean and the Aegean in summer.

Within the city, public transport needs are served by buses and minibuses. A tramway system will be service at the end of 1998. As the population grows, so does the number of vehicles and the flow of the traffic has been  maintained by widening some streets, constructing new ones and introducing  a one way system. Additionally, all of Kazım Özalp street and one side of Atatürk street have been closed to provide free space for pedestrians and cyclist. Multi-level car parks either constructed or under construction in the city center will provide a complete solution to its parking problem.

The new Intercity Bus Terminal which went into operation on October 29, 1996 and is an exemplary specimen of modern architecture is crowded at every hour of the day. It has a service area of 20, 000 m2  set in a green park area of 235 000 m2. This International Bus Terminal, which is in keeping with the concept of Antalya as a world city, has ticket sales points, company office, restaurants, cafeterias, buffets, shops, police control points, tourism information bureaus and a number of other amenities. In addition, there are regional directorates in  Antalya province which are organs of Ministries of the Turkish Republic and which undertake a variety of investment in the region. Inside the Hasan Subaşı Culture Park, established with an area of 700,000 m2 on the Konyaaltı cliffs to the west of the city, are two important buildings.

These are Antalya Culture Center and the Glass Pyramid SABANCI Fair and Congress Center. Provincial administration is carried out by the Provincial Governor’s Office. In other words, the top administrator for the region is appointed by the Turkish state. The Governor’s task is to ensure a tranquil life for the people of the region by applying the low and regulations. The province is further divided into sub-provinces, township and villages. Sub-provincial governors, township sub-district administrator and villages headmen administer these subdivisions. The Provincial General Assembly is elected every for years by popular vote. It meat on certain dates throughout the year and takes decisions on work to be carried out in the province as a whole. The Provincial Special Administration is an establishment which, without being responsible to be government, tries to foresee the need of the city. It assist the government by investing in such necessities as schools, hospitals, roads and bridges.

Antalya’s municipal organization was established in 1986. A low passed by the government in 1994 gave Antalya the administrative status of a greater municipality. Thus the city was divided administratively into four pasts, the municipalities of greater Antalya, Muratpaşa Konyaaltı and Kepez. The sub-municipalities make investment in accordance with the decisions of their own assembly members. The Greater Municipal Assembly is made of  the municipal mayors and certain other municipal assembly members and numbers 18 people. The municipality has to decision-making organs, these being the commission. Municipal mayors and assembly members and numbers 18 people.

The municipality has two decisions-making organs these being the assembly and the commission. Municipal mayors and assembly members are elected by popular vote for a four-year term. The municipal administrations are responsible for arranging the lives of the citizens in a modern and healty fashion though such items as cultural and artist activities, roads, water, sanitation, inspection of foodstuffs, public transport, children’s playgrounds and parks.

As in other parts of Turkey, nationals days are celebrated joyfully in Antalya with substantial popular participation. Turkish films find an opportunity to complete with one another at the Antalya Orange Film Festival which has been organized annually since 1964. During these festival has made an important contribution to Turkish cinema. There are five cinemas in the city center. During the years the Antalya State Theatre and the Municipal Amateur Theater Company stage a variety of plays. The Aspendos International Opera and Ballet Festival, held each year since 1994 in June at the ancient theater of Aspendos, has attracted great interest both from the people of Antalya and from Turkish and overseas tourists visiting the area.