According to Turkish media reports, the reason for this situation is due to the lack of a license from the hotel owner; local authorities refused to issue it.
The hotel, formerly known as the Maril Resort, was renamed and transferred into new hands early last year. The new owner, Deniz Aktash, leased the hotel for 10 years with an option to buy and argued that they should have received a license soon.
He also claimed that he had three meetings with the mayor of Didim, Ahmet Deniz Atabay, to discuss the licensing process, but received various excuses. The mayor of Didim, according to him, was delaying the process, claiming that it was necessary to “sort it out.” The hotelier also noted that the mayor’s relatives own a travel agency.
However, despite the circumstances, tourists turned out to be extreme in this situation. When the police arrived, there were about 100 tourists at the hotel, including Russian, as well as Ukrainian, Polish, Romanian, and Bulgarian citizens.
The hotelier expressed bewilderment and disappointment about what happened, emphasizing that he asked local authorities to wait until the end of the season, but his requests were ignored. He also emphasized that such events damaged Didim’s tourism and believed that personal ambitions and ignorance of the law led to this unpleasant situation.