Turkey brings back over 3,000 citizens before Ramadan

ANKARA

More than 3,000 Turkish nationals were repatriated from cities around the world Thursday as part of an initiative by Ankara amid the coronavirus pandemic.

After routine health checks were coordinated by the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), they were brought to dormitories in several cities in Turkey to be quarantined.

A specially arranged Turkish Airlines flight carrying 363 Turkish citizens left from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku and landed in the Black Sea province of Ordu.

Separately, 182 Turks were evacuated on a flight from Sudan and landed in Batman province. Following health checks, they were sent to Siirt province.

A flight carrying 94 Turks from Serbia landed in Kutahya province.

Turkey evacuated 344 of its citizens on a flight from Algeria which arrived in Gaziantep province.

Meanwhile, 509 people, including 50 German nationals with family ties to Turkish citizens, were brought back on flights from Germany which arrived in the capital Ankara and Adana province.

A total of 166 Turks were evacuated on a flight from Jordan that landed in the Black Sea province of Samsun.

A flight carrying 188 Turkish citizens from Russia landed in the Black Sea province of Kastamonu. Some 150 Turks were evacuated on a flight from Spain and landed in the Black Sea province of Amasya.

Some 291 citizens from Uzbekistan, 295 from Saudi Arabia, 249 from Oman and 349 from Canada were brought to dorms in several Turkish cities.

A total of 217 citizens who were kept in quarantine for 14 days at a dorm in Turkey's Black Sea province of Trabzon also returned to their homes.

They had been brought back from Canada, Kuwait and Georgia.

At the instruction of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and in coordination with the Foreign Ministry, Turkey has repatriated nearly 25,000 citizens from 59 countries ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Turkey on Thursday confirmed 115 more fatalities from the novel coronavirus over the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 2,491.

Since first appearing in Wuhan, China last December, the virus, officially known as COVID-19, has spread to at least 185 countries and regions.

The number of cases worldwide has passed 2.69 million with more than 188,000 deaths while at least 737,000 have recovered from the virus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University in the US.

*Writing by Firdevs Bulut