Turkey evacuates over 300 nationals from Iraq

By Haydar Karaalp

BAGHDAD (AA) - Over 300 Turkish nationals have been evacuated to Turkey from the Iraqi capital of Baghdad and several southern provinces, upon their repatriation requests due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.

As part of Turkey’s worldwide operations to bring back its citizens for Ramadan amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Turkish citizens were returned to homeland through the land route with the support of Turkish ministries and the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad.

The Turkish government has repatriated around 60,000 of its nationals from various countries since the start of the pandemic.

As of Thursday, Turkey registered a total of 3,174 deaths due to coronavirus whereas nearly 49,000 people have recovered from the disease. Currently, there are 120,204 confirmed cases in the country.

After originating in China last December, COVID-19 has spread to at least 187 countries and regions. Europe and the US are currently the worst-hit regions.

The pandemic has killed over 233,400 worldwide, with more than 3.25 million infections, while recoveries have exceeded 1 million, according to figures compiled by US-based Johns Hopkins University.

* Writing by Jeyhun Aliyev from Ankara