Tourists in coup terror
Holidaymakers relive night soldiers tried to overthrow Turkish leader
SCOTS holidaying in the same resort as Turkey’s president have told how they hid in their bedrooms during the attempted military coup.
Militants plotting to seize control of the country were searching the tourist resort of Marmaris in the early hours of Saturday for president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had earlier taken to Skype to urge his supporters to fight against the uprising.
The president is understood to have been staying at the Grand Yazici Mares hotel in the seaside resort.
Holidaymaker Mike Dignan, of Rosyth, described how he heard soldiers raiding a neighbouring hotel as they hunted for president Erdogan.
Mr Dignan, who was staying at the Grand Yazici Turban — next door to the Mares — with his wife Sarah and their two children, said: “We started hearing small gunfire. It was the odd shot and then it became more fierce.
“Police started firing at the helicopters. Then the helicopters started firing back. We shut ourselves in the bedroom.
“We heard shouting and people running around outside our complex, some past our door.
“Soldiers were trying to get in the hotel next door to get Erdogan and the police were fighting back.”
Yesterday, Mr Dignan, 40, said everything had been back to normal from around lunchtime on Saturday.
He said: “You would not even know anything had happened other than the damage to buildings and a few cars.
“Scary as it was at the time, if Erdogan had not been next door this week I am certain we would have experienced next to nothing in terms of an event here.
“We love Turkey, and as far as I am concerned, it was an extraordinary event, it happened, it is done.”
Tonia McGinley, 49, told how she and her family barricaded themselves in their room at the Turban hotel as gunfire erupted outside. Ms McGinley, a mother of three, from Cumbernauld, said she was awoken around 4am by the sounds of gunshots and helicopters overhead.
Ms McGinley, who was holidaying with her partner Mark and their twin boys, said: “I know it might sound like an overreaction, but I got some furniture and barricaded the door.
“The gunshots were getting closer and closer — it was terrifying.”
Ms McGinley said another holidaymaker was forced to shelter armed rebels in her villa. She said: “We heard from someone that four soldiers knocked their door and, when they opened it, they burst in and took refuge in their room for two hours. It appears they were hiding from the police.
“We are told the trouble may be over. but you just get the feeling the whole situation is unsettled.”
Meanwhile, the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office said the situation in Turkey appeared to be calming and is not warning Brits against travel to the country, other than to the eastern regions bordering Syria and Iraq.
The coup is the latest blow to Turkey’s tourist industry, which had already suffered a 32 per cent fall in UK package-holiday bookings in the year to April, before the coup and an airport terror attack in Istanbul in June.
Tour operator Thomas Cook said its flight and holiday programme was running normally, but offered free amendments and cancellations to anyone due to fly to Turkey yesterday.
It comes as Turkey’s justice minister Bekir Bozdag said 6,000 people have been detained in a government crackdown on alleged coup plotters and government opponents.
Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen — currently in the US — has been blamed for masterminding the uprising. But Mr Gulen denies any involvement.
The US said it will consider any evidence to support Mr Gulen’s deportation to Turkey.