Istanbul taxi driver dismissed for ranting at tourist

ISTANBUL – Demirören News Agency

The license of a taxi driver has been revoked after being caught on camera shouting at a tourist and throwing her luggage on the street, the Istanbul Taxicab Merchants Chamber (İTEO) said on June 25.

“The taxi driver was in the wrong against a woman tourist. We will not accept this. We have to dismiss taxi drivers like this from the profession and we have done so,” İTEO head Eyüp Aksu said, pointing that the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality acted to revoke the driver’s license following their application.

“We called the taxi and [the driver] was disqualified from driving. From now on, those drivers who are in the wrong cannot work with taxicabs. We have prepared a common project with the Metropolitan Municipality called the Public Transport Control System. People in Istanbul will convey their problems and complaints through the system. Assessments will be made in the system and penalty points will be imposed. Any driver who gets 100 points will not be able to drive public transport vehicles or taxis on any account,” he said.

“We have struggled against pirate transportation such as Uber. Now, we should revise our service as our president has expressed,” said Aksu, recalling President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s call to yellow taxi drivers.

Meanwhile, the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB) also condemned the taxi driver.

“We would like to state that the reaction of a taxi driver to a foreign tourist in Istanbul’s Nişantaşı district on June 23 is unacceptable and we condemn this inappropriate behavior. Turkey is a tourism country. We invite all professionals who are directly in contact with tourists to act with responsibility and consciousness,” TÜRSAB said on June 25.

Video footage appeared on social media on June 23, showing an unidentified taxi driver ranting at a black woman and throwing her luggage out of the car, refusing to take her further because of heavy traffic and telling her to walk. He also refused to give her change.