Turkey lifts 14-day home quarantine for expats, eases border restrictions

A 14-day home quarantine was lifted on June 11 for Turkish expats visiting homeland, said a top official of a Turkish state agency.

"During the summer period, we will assist our citizens abroad who are on a journey to homeland," said Abdullah Eren, head of Turkey's Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB), in a statement.

With the steps taken for normalization from the coronavirus pandemic, Turkey started to ease strict measures applied to citizens traveling from abroad and executed in border crossings, according to the YTB statement.

As part of the loosening of measures, transit passages for citizens traveling from European countries via land were opened, the statement said.

About 6 million Turkish citizens live in European countries. In recent years, some 700,000 expats drove to Turkey from Europe, according to the agency.

Meanwhile, Turkey also lifted restrictions June 11 on entrances and exits for Turkish citizens and foreign nationals, except for the country's land border with Iran.

The move came after a Cabinet meeting led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Related decrees have been lifted except for the border with Iran.

Air travel will be coordinated in collaboration by Health, Foreign and Transport ministries.

Turkish and foreign nationals who enter Turkey will go through health checks.

Entries and exits will be in line with measures taken by Interior, Health and Transport ministries.

The new decree has been sent to all provinces.