ZEKI MUREN

In the 70s, members of the middle class who were bold enough to experiment with the unconventional began to spend vacations in Bodrum. The turning point arrived when the singer Zeki Müren, the ultimate impersonation of the Turkish kitsch, announced his decision to  settle in Bodrum. Around 1985, the number of tourists in town for the fırst time exceeded that of the native. vaca convenienc Bodrum became the principal tion haven of western Turkey, with all the es and curses that ensue.

As if by divine intervention the symbol of Turkey's years of innocence, Zeki Müren, died in September after a carelessly planned recording of a future TV appearance. "The sun of the arts", as he nicknamed himself and was accepted as such by the public, began his spectacular rise as a Turkish classical music singer in the fifties. His was a new face for a new era when the Turkish population, enjoying its new electoral power, voted in a party that promised to turn Turkey into a "little America" and prided itself for being part of the "free world". Unambiguously effeminate, daring, at times outrageous but always meticulous in his appearance and famously reverential to his public, Müren had withdrawn to his retreat in the resort town of Bodrum for the last four years. His death brought to the fore an enormous outpouring of grief and emotion. Turks from all walks of life and all ages rushed to his funeral. As an ordinary citizen said, "the era of affection, kindness and 'small letter' happiness is gone forgoodnow".