Kusadasi Celebrates Cabotage Day By Mary West The 1st July is Cabotage Day and is celebrated in many ports all over Turkey. Special celebrations are held in the South Eastern city of Van, centered around the lake and its islands. In Kusadasi it is is a special day for the local coastgaurd and the Captain and Crew dress in their best uniforms and the Coastgaurd Cutter is “Dressed Up All Over” a nautical term refering to the ship putting out all the flags. Cabotage trade is a political term describing the "coastwise trade of a nation to vessels flying its national flag". Usually, industrial countries have special laws pertaining to trade and travel of goods and persons in its own waters when the ship carrying them is registered domestically. These laws, commonly called "cabotage laws (acts)", give concessions to local ships by restricting port and waterway usage by vessels with foreign registrations "to promote the development of indigenous tonnage..."] Initially, laws like these will protect domestic businesses by giving them an advantage over exportation. Later, this will increase the country's income via taxes and fees collected from foreign businesses. The country will receive more income, when foreign businesses decide to register their vessels domestically. Cabotage is so important to Turkish trade that a National Day is held to comemorate its inception.