ANKARA
Turkey became the third country having most blue flagged beaches, replacing France.
Turkey ranked the third among the countries having the most blue flagged beaches after Spain and Greece.
Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) gave blue flags to 383 beaches and 21 marines within the "Blue Flag 2013" working program, Director Erol Gundor of Turkey's Environment Education Foundation (TURCEV), told AA on Wednesday.
"When we applied for Blue Flag 20 years ago for the first time, we ranked the last among 10 countries which were selected only from Europe. Currently, there are 46 countries from all over the world and we rank the third," said Gungor.
Gungor added, "Spain ranked the first with 552 blue flags, while Greece is the second with 393. France comes the fourth after Turkey with 365 blue flags."
Other countries in the ranking are Portugal with 280, Denmark with 243, Croatia with 102, Ireland with 70, the Netherlands with 58, Greek Cypriot administration with 57 and Britain with 55 blue flagged beaches.
While southern Antalya continued to rank the first with 197 beaches, Istanbul increased the number of its blue flags from 2 to 3 this year.
There are 32 criteria under 4 categories to attain blue flag, which are sea water quality, environment education, environment administration, security and services.
