ANKARA -- Turkey's first gay-lesbian hotel opens in July at a popular resort on the Mediterranean coast, its manager said Wednesday.

"There are several gay-friendly hotels in Turkey, but ours is the first to be 100 percent gay and lesbian. It will not accept guests outside this concept," Faruk Ok said by telephone. "Part of the personnel is also gay or lesbian," he added.

The licensing of the 70-room, four-star Planet Victorya in Kemer, in Antalya province, where Turkey's largest hotels and holiday villages are located, was free of any bureaucratic hassles, Ok said.

The story of Turkey's first gay-lesbian hotel in Mediterranean Fethiye is an example. The hotel was opened two years ago and forced to be closed down last year, the former manager Turgay told, as it became known through reports in a number of mainstream dailies and journals. The reports were reasonable, he said, but problems started shortly after. The military police came to the hotel several times at night, Turgay said and finally he was told that the military police could not provide security there. They started to wake up with fire shots after that, he claimed, leading to the closure of the hotel due to a small problem in the deed of the property. The management license of the hotel was taken away from the property owner, Turgay concluded and the story of the first gay-lesbian hotel ended, despite the possibility of high profits by bringing a nonexistent facility into the Turkish tourism sector. Turgay now manages a gay café in Istanbul's Beyoğlu.