Turkey’s foreign minister on Tuesday said that 507 Turkish citizens living abroad died due to the novel coronavirus.
Bodies of over 400 Turkish expats were already brought to Turkey, Mevlut Cavusoglu said during an interview. Cavusoglu said that over 65,000 Turkish expats from 110 countries have been carried back to the home since the outbreak of the virus.
TURKEY TAKES CARE OF THOSE WE CANNOT BRING BACK ONE BY ONE
A total of 300 Turkish citizens from Kazakhstan will be brought to Turkey by a Turkish Airlines flight today, he said, adding another flight will evacuate citizens from the Dominican Republic and surrounding countries tonight.
The same flight will also bring back Bulgarian, Romanian and Azerbaijan citizens, he added.
Highlighting difficulties of expats’ evacuation especially from some counties in Africa and Latin America due to strict quarantine measures, Cavusoglu said: “We are taking care of those we cannot bring back one by one. We have sent additional fund to our missions.”
Cavusoglu said that around 500 Turkish citizens in several countries are under coronavirus treatment, and Turkey’s missions in these countries are in contact with citizens.