Municipal Police, Fire Department, Cemetery Director

The place located in Konyaaltı holds great significance for 7 Mehmet Restaurant. Home to countless memories and stories, it was here that the family experienced an unfortunate incident, when in 1985 a fire reduced the entire place to ashes. We wanted to continue with a story connected to this event. Mehmet recounts:

“In the 1980s, municipal police officers came to inspect the place. They arrived with their supervisor. Back then, hygiene regulations and inspections were not overseen by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, but by municipal police units. During the inspection, something happened that angered my grandfather. The supervisor noticed a fly in the air and said, ‘You see, flies are found in dirty places.’ My grandfather snapped back, ‘Let’s go to your house—if we see one there too, then what am I supposed to do?’ Shortly afterward, the municipal police director was removed from his post—without any involvement from my grandfather or my father—and was appointed as fire department director.

Time passed. In 1985, our place suffered a serious fire. My father and the others called the fire department, but to no avail. The crews never arrived. Because the former municipal police director was still angry with us, he didn’t dispatch anyone, and the seaside place burned down completely. If someone had shown up, maybe it could have been saved—but because it belonged to 7 Mehmet, they chose not to send help. At the time, we didn’t know the story unfolded this way; we learned it later.

Three years passed. In 1988, my grandfather, 7 Mehmet, passed away. My father was looking for a burial plot at Andızlı, Antalya’s largest cemetery. The cemetery director kept saying, ‘There’s no space.’ And who was this director? The very same man—whom we believe had been removed from his role as fire department director for not sending crews to our fire, and was then appointed as cemetery director! (Mehmet laughs here.) Let me underline this clearly: we had nothing to do with any of these reassignments. Eventually, the director who said there was no space for us in the cemetery was removed from that position as well. Where he is now, or what he’s doing—we have no idea…”