An unidentified tourism worker in Antalya said police officers vacationing in the Kemer and Beldibi resort areas abruptly left their hotels on the night of July 14, 2016, one day before Turkey’s July 15, 2016 coup attempt.
The woman made the claim in a street interview with Kendine Muhabir TV, saying the episode was known locally but had not been discussed publicly.
The interview was later shared by 15 Temmuz Gerçekleri, a website that examines disputed aspects of the coup attempt and challenges Ankara’s official account.
The woman said she worked in tourism, also lived in the United Kingdom and held dual citizenship.
She said many members of the police force had been staying in hotels in Kemer and Beldibi, two tourism districts on Antalya’s Mediterranean coast, in the week before July 15.
She claimed those officers suddenly packed up and left on the night of July 14.
“On the night of the 14th, why did the police evacuate the hotels?” she said. “Everyone knows it, but no one is talking.”
Her statement raised questions about whether some police officers had received advance notice of developments before the coup attempt began the following evening.
The woman did not name the hotels, the police units or the officers she was referring to.
She also did not present documents or records during the interview.
The claim therefore remains a witness account, but it fits into a broader set of questions raised by critics of the official narrative about unusual movements by police and state officials before July 15.
Turkey’s government describes the events of July 15 as a failed military coup that was defeated by public resistance, police action and loyalist forces.
Critics of Ankara’s account argue that several details from the hours before the attempted takeover remain unexplained, including whether some officials had advance knowledge of what was coming.
The woman’s account focused on one such question: why police officers who had been vacationing in Antalya would leave their hotels hours before the country entered one of the most consequential nights in its modern history.
https://twitter.com/15TemGercekleri/status/1297186356729229312
