Tourists vacationing in Turkey at the 5-star City Point Hotel in the Didim district of Aydin had to experience an unpleasant event. All tourists, including Ukrainian ones, were suddenly kicked out of the hotel and sealed. The reason, according to the Turkish press, is that the owner of the hotel did not have a license, and the local authorities flatly refused to issue it to him. However, as the outraged hotelier told the media, it was the first time they encountered a police assault and eviction of tourists here — and this will undoubtedly damage the resort’s image. Moreover, at that time, not only tourists lived in the hotel, but also travel agents who came on a promotional tour.
Media reports the following details: The hotel, formerly Maril Resort, changed hands early last year and began operating under a new name on April 6, 2023. Its new owner Deniz Aktash, who leased the hotel for 10 years with the right of redemption, assured that they should have received the license shortly. Moreover, in the process, he met three times with the mayor of Didim, Ahmet Deniz Atabay, regarding the process of hotel licensing — but he delayed the meetings, saying something like: “We’ll see, we’ll figure it out.” At the same time, he added that the mayor’s relatives also own an agency and bring tourists from abroad.
“We applied for a license to the Didim municipality in May, but the municipality immediately rejected it. The municipality sent a notice about the sealing process after making the decision. We filed an appeal to the 2nd Administrative Court of Aydin against this notice. The court decided to suspend the sealing procedure,” the hotelier added. He also noted that he tried to obtain a license through the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, which is authorized to issue licenses to commercial enterprises. Still, it also sought the opinion of Didim Municipality. All this happened on August 8 as part of the official procedure, but the municipality did not respond to the ministry’s letter until the date of sealing. Also, according to him, the governor of Aydin province sent a letter to the municipality last week and asked to respond to the letter by October 6. “However, the municipality insisted on not responding. Even though we have the building registration document, the title records it as a 12-story hotel, pool, and land. Despite this, they postponed it until yesterday. And yesterday they came to seal the hotel,” said Mr. Aktash.
Tourists turned out to be the most extreme in these showdowns, since at the time of the police visit, 100 of the 192 places in the hotel were filled with Ukrainian, Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Russian tourists. Even the participants of the Odeon Tour stayed at the hotel.
“We asked them to wait until the end of the season. But they did not consider it. They made an announcement and ordered to evacuate the rooms. Our guests were amazed by what happened. Didim’s tourism suffered from these events. Personal ambitions and ignorance of the law, unfortunately, led to ugly consequences that will harm the resort,” the hotelier assured.
At the same time, the tenant of City Point Hotel has no intention of giving up. According to him, they have already appealed to the second administrative court of Aydin with a request to suspend the sealing process. “The court can suspend execution of the sentence at any time. The Ministry of Environment and Urbanization gave the municipality of Didim until Friday to respond to the letter of conclusion. If the municipality does not respond to the conclusion letter, the Provincial Department of Environment and Urbanization will write to the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization and wait for the Ministry’s approval. The Ministry is authorized to issue licenses to commercial enterprises. We will have a license from the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, not Didim Municipality,” Aktash said.
He also published in the media his appeal to the municipality: “Everywhere in Didyma has a license, and only this place does not have a license, so you went and sealed it with dozens of policemen, right? I think that the residents of Didim do not think that you have used your authority correctly and done a good thing for Didim. In 35 years, I have not seen or heard of any place or hotel in Didima that was closed because of a raid by two police buses because they did not have a license. The hotel you sealed was the first. At the same time, tourists came to us who had not even heard of such a resort. Do you know the effort and expense we incurred? And what a shame this eviction of yours has become for Didim and those who invest in it.”