Memories of the July 15, 2016 coup attempt by the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) are still fresh in public memory. However, certain locations serve as stark reminders of the fateful night in which 251 people were killed by putschists. Among them is the hotel where President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was lodged in at the time. Traces have remained untouched over the past seven years since an assassination team of FETÖ targeted the hotel in Muğla, on the Aegean coast of Türkiye. The hotel in the town of Marmaris, which sustained heavy damage, has not been repaired since then to expose how disgraced the coup plotters were when they attempted the coup. Footage from Anadolu Agency (AA) shows parts of the hotel with traces from the horrific attack. The hotel has never reopened for accommodation since the day of the defeated coup.
The president, who was vacationing in southwestern Muğla at that time, departed for Istanbul after he was alerted about the coup bid and narrowly escaped an armed attack on the hotel he was staying in. The hotel came under a bomb attack 15 minutes after his departure.
On the night of the coup attempt, two police officers were killed at the scene of Erdoğan's hotel. Today, the premises, from the rooms where Erdoğan and his entourage were lodged to adjacent rooms whose windows were smashed amid gunfire, remain intact. A bed stained with the blood of injured police officers and a bullet-riddled sofa in one of the rooms are grim pieces of this "museum."
When the assassination attempt failed, putschists fled to the countryside where they hid for 17 days before security forces captured them. A general accused of orchestrating the assassination attempt was sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment in a subsequent trial. Only one person among those involved in the assassination, a captain, remains at large.
Nihat Eker, father of Nedip Cengiz Eker, one of two police officers killed by putschists, is sad but proud of his son. As the anniversary of July 15 approaches, he proudly walked on a street bearing his son's name in Marmaris with his wife Güzel. "His martyrdom is a medal of honor for us. I am happy that his efforts, efforts of people fighting against putschists kept our country's unity intact," he told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Friday.
