Turkey seeks to convince European countries for tourism: Erdoğan

ANKARA

Turkey is trying to convince European countries to allow their citizens to visit Turkey for tourism purposes, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on May 19.

Turkey is looking to see “how do we get tourists to our country as soon as possible. For this, we’re in talks with many European countries. We say ‘open your doors as soon as possible; let us open our doors,’” he said, speaking at an event in the capital Ankara to mark the Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day on May 19.

He was responding to the criticisms that foreign tourists were allowed for mobilization while Turkish citizens were under lockdown. Pointing out the fact that the number of tourists visiting Turkey was low and the ones arriving in the country have come by taking a risk, he said that therefore, the government could not restrict their movement, noting that some tradesmen were benefiting from this mobility.

A wide range of COVID-19 measures has been taken to ensure a safe tourism season, Erdoğan said.

The number of daily infections is in decreasing trend in Turkey, the president said, emphasizing that reducing the number of coronavirus cases below 10,000 was the result of the country’s “determined steps.”

“Now the goal is to bring them down to 5,000,” he added.

Citing the numbers in Turkey’s vaccination program, Erdoğan said the country is “almost one of the leading countries in vaccination practice in the world.”

Nearly 27 million vaccinations have been done so far, including some 11.5 million second vaccine doses, he said, adding that one-third of the teachers have been vaccinated.

Erdoğan wows to always stand against Netanyahu

Turkey will continue its efforts against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has never been “any friend of ours,” the president said.

He reacted against the İYİ (Good) Party leader Meral Akşener, who resembled Erdoğan to Netanyahu. “We have politicians who have become so immoral that they shamelessly equate me with Netanyahu. I have not even met with Netanyahu until today,” he stated.

“Netanyahu has never been and will not be our friend, and we will continue on our way by fighting the same struggle we have waged against Netanyahu so far,” he said.

The president also said an important name from FETÖ was arrested and that they would soon announce the name.

‘UEFA and Formula 1 took political decisions’

Erdoğan said that both the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and Formula 1 have made a political decision not to hold their games in Turkey.

“In my opinion, they made a political decision. I call it political because we were notified two years ago of the decision that the Champions League would be played in Turkey,” he said.

Erdoğan said the change of the venue came after “two teams from the British league won the right to play the final.”

UEFA announced this month that the final match between Manchester City and Chelsea would be played in Porto instead of Istanbul.