Interview with Dr Gülşen Y. Sağlam on the Evacuation of Turkish Citizens from Lebanon

Introduction

If the war spreads to the sea or Rafic Hariri International Airport is targeted, it will become even more difficult for Türkiye to evacuate its citizens. The fact that the first evacuation was carried out successfully on 10 October is very important. Indeed, Türkiye is currently also ensuring the safe evacuation from Lebanon of nationals of other countries who have applied to it for evacuation, since no country other than Türkiye is currently conducting an evacuation operation. For this reason, in the first evacuation convoy, nationals of other countries as well as Turkish citizens were brought to the Port of Mersin in good health and safety. Personally, I consider it very important that the evacuation of Turkish citizens be completed before the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon worsens further. This opportunity must be seized while air and sea routes are still partially open, because if these routes are closed in future, the evacuation of Turkish citizens may become impossible. Indeed, work is currently under way regarding those who wish to be evacuated. Information on those to be evacuated has been passed to the diplomatic mission. Because of the difficulty of evacuating by air, the first evacuations were carried out by sea. It is currently said among the public that approximately 5 thousand citizens have applied for evacuation.