Owners: Akkaraca Family

Akaraca Family

The father: Nihat Akkaraca

He is not only the father of the family but also Villa Vista. That's why the other name of Villa Vista is Mesudiye Nihat Akkaraca Evi (i.e. House). The house and its location was love at first sight for him and villa vista would never exist without his efforts.

Our father Nihat Akkaraca, who was a local of Datça, was an extraordinary person, with many intellectual and social talents. He was a perfect example for the limitlesness of an autodidactic character. Born in Eski Datça in 1931, he only finished the elementary shool under those times village conditions. After his military service, he did not go back to his village; after several tries, he understood that he did not have a trader spirit and he started to work in the construction as a blue-colour labour. He moved to Sinop on Turkey’s Black Sea Coast in search of work; taught himself English and secured a job at a USAF base. He then taught himself electronics and was given a better job by the USAF. Subsequently he opened his own electronic repair center, which he ran until he retired to his home area, where he became a stalwart of various local societies and community projects.

In Datça, his home-town, one of his many interests became local folklore. As a founder of the Datça Local History Group, Nihat documented oral tradition and recorded many stories connected with the region, and with life in Old Datça in the days when the village still had a Greek community. Nihat was an enthusiastic believer in strengthening ties between the communities of Datça and Symi (the Greek Island) and was one of the driving forces behind the founding of the World Peace Day Swim between the two. While on another front one of his projects was the education and training of migrants from eastern and southeastern anatolia to the Datça area.
Through years, he became a well-known Datça historian and an occasional contributor to the Symi Visitor newspaper over the years.  He regularly contributed articles to a local paper before going on to write a widely acclaimed book. With his first book having gone to a reprint, our father was working on a second book at the time of his death (2009). We miss him deeply.

please see : http://www.nihatakkaraca-english.blogspot.com/

http://www.nihatakkaraca.blogspot.com/ (in Turkish)

http://www.symivisitor.com/2009/02/nihat-akkaraca.html

The Sisters:

Meltem Akkaraca Semizoğlu is the elder sister of the family. After tiring years as she worked in Istanbul as a lawyer, now she is a talented artist in jewelery, (creativity seems like a family tradition:). She has her own workshop in Istanbul and sells her products all around Europe and USA. http://www.etsy.com/shop/meltemsem She is married to Hakan Semizoğlu, a very sucesful and hard-working lawyer in Istanbul, who runs his own law company. They have a son, Anıl Can Semizoğlu who studies physics in University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.

Melike Akkaraca Köse is the younger sister of the family. She has been working as an academic in international relations and political sciences at different universities in Istanbul for more than 10 years. She has a Ph.D. in EU Law. She is especially interested and a number of publications in political and legal philosophy.She is married to Ferruh Köse, who is one of the few specialists in mega-yatch construction in Turkey. www.studentfriendlycoursepages.blogspot.com

The Mother: Emel Akkaraca, born in Sinop, originally a housewife during lifetime, is very talented in handcrafts and worked occasionally as trainer in different public training courses on handcrafts. She is selling locally her handcrafts still in Datca handcraft and art bazaar. She is an active member of many local association and community projects in Datça.