A Tajik youth built a lion park with his friends in Antalya, Turkey.
22 lions are kept in this park, and residents and tourists visit the animals in special cars, feed them and take photos for memory.
The young Tajik man who built this garden in Antalya did not want to be introduced because of the reasons of not interfering with his business, but he says that it is important that he was able to create a job for himself and other Tajiks in this country. He is trying to increase the number of lions in the park.
In this park, we met Sofia, a Russian citizen, who came to Antalya from Kazan, Russia, for tourism. He said that he liked to see this garden. According to our interlocutor, it is difficult to see a lion up close in other places, but in this park, conditions have been created to see this animal up close.
The visitors of this park are mostly foreigners.
Aslam, an official in this park, told Radio Ozodi that guests are taken to the lions in a pickup truck, where they feed them and take pictures. “The trip lasts 10-15 minutes. Also, depending on the wishes of the guests, the time of the trip can be changed,” he said.
Some of the employees of this holiday park in Antalya are also Tajiks living in Turkey.
Shahnoza Ochilova came to this city eight years ago and lives there. He says that if the construction of this park is interesting for tourists from the point of view of entertainment, it is a place of work and income for him and other Tajiks. “I have been working here for three months. Visitors come here from Kazan, Moscow, Uzbekistan. They come a lot. Here we have a “safari” (a trip by car in the zoo), they go on a “safari” for 20-25 minutes, then they go down we have a restaurant, they eat there and return to their hotels. Tajiks also come, but very rarely,” said Shahnoza Ochilova.
Dozens of people work in this park, which is built on an area of 40 hectares, half of them are Tajiks. Its founders say that they are trying to launch other types of travel, thereby attracting Tajiks to work in this tourist city in Turkey.
Source : Радио Озоди