In Trabzon, which stands out with its fishing industry in Türkiyeye, haul-out areas used for boat maintenance and repair needs and fishermen’s shelters are being used for purposes other than intended. Shelters, for which only usage rights are granted to fishermen and which have no title deeds, have recently begun to be converted into luxury living spaces. Fishermen’s shelters are being transferred for prices between 5 and 7 million TL, sold for millions in value. Structures created under the guise of fishermen’s shelters are used by businessmen, public officials, and professional footballers as weekend houses, luxury hobby areas, or private properties by the sea. Structures defined in official records solely as areas for fishermen’s shelter and equipment storage are being marketed like luxury residences, despite having no title deed records. Particularly the Faroz and 100th Year fishermen’s shelters are centrally located among the structures that have become luxury living spaces. In the Ortahisar district of the city, these fishermen’s shelters, with exterior cladding, special landscaping, terrace applications, and even illegal additional constructions, are being converted into private properties.
“All shelters on the coast belong to the state according to the law”
Making evaluations on the subject, the President of the Association for the Protection of Natural and Historical Values, Prof. Dr. Coşkun Erüz, stated, “Trabzon is a maritime city but a city without a beach. People now access the sea by boats. Therefore, there is a high demand for the sea. Due to the pressure brought by this demand, almost all fishermen’s shelters are full. We can even say they are overfull. It is said that their sales are now made at exorbitant prices. It is necessary to prevent this and raise the standard of coastal facilities.”
“Let not fishermen’s harbors become like plateaus”
Erüz, stating that fishermen’s shelters are public property and that usage rights are granted to citizens, said, “All shelters on the coasts are places that are under the state’s responsibility according to the law. It is not possible to speak of private ownership here. They entirely belong to the public. Only the usage rights over them belong to the individual. Exorbitant prices are not very meaningful actually because the state can demolish and change these places whenever it wants. This needs to be done. Fishermen’s shelters and haul-out areas must now be of international standard. Otherwise, we are heading towards facilities that are even worse and unbecoming of the region. Like the illegal construction on the plateaus, our harbors are also heading towards a type of construction that should not exist. This needs to be brought under control. Fishermen’s shelters are actually special points all over the world where the public can access fresh daily fish and eat their fish right next to the sea. Our harbors need to be within systems that are under regulation.”
“Fishermen’s shelters are not accommodation facilities and living places”
Saying, “Shelters are places that should only be for fishermen to store their nets during fishing activities and for temporary shelter before returning to sea,” Erüz stated, “Haul-out areas, as understood from the name, are necessary places only for pulling boats ashore. There should be no facilities behind them. Fishermen’s shelters are not accommodation facilities and living places. Harbors are places that should only be for fishermen to store their nets during fishing activities and for temporary shelter before returning to sea. It is always like this in the world. In our case, as a result of the lack of control, people have started to equip them as they wish. This is not a problem of the fishermen and those in the harbor. The problem is the lack of control and regulation.
If a system that is standard and controlled at the national level is adapted, Trabzon will comply with it. But if we do not set the rule and standard and leave it to the citizen, it is possible for the same thing to be done in the shelter as it is everywhere else. If the citizen starts living, they shift towards luxury. There is nothing abnormal about this. The state needs to set the limit. It needs to define whether this is a shelter, a haul-out area, or a living quarters. Unfortunately, there is no structure like the one in the Black Sea in Turkey. In other regions, it has been made like haul-out areas and day-to-day shelters.
