Transport and Infrastructure Ministry

Heavy fog led to a shutdown of vessel traffic late on Jan. 17 in Turkey's Bosporus Strait, said Turkish officials.

Marine traffic in the Bosporus has been suspended as visibility is below a half mile, the Istanbul Port Directorate of the Transport and Infrastructure Ministry said in a statement.

Turkey released an investment program to fund 3,091 projects in 2021, according to information issued in the Official Gazette late on Jan. 15. 

The program totals 138.3 billion Turkish liras ($18.5 billion), the gazette showed.

Turkey has suspended flights from the U.K., Denmark, the Netherlands and South Africa due to concerns over a new fast-moving coronavirus strain.

"It has been reported that the rate of transmission has increased in the U.K. with the mutation of the coronavirus," Health Minister Fahrettin Koca wrote on Twitter on late Dec. 20.

Turkey will monitor vehicles that carry cargo from Central Asia after entering the country with a tracking system, said Adil Karaismailoğlu, the Turkish transportation and infrastructure minister on April 28. 

Under a new measure to allow for safe trade with Turkey amid the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign truck drivers who comply with stringent health rules will be able to deliver their cargo and exit the country within 72 hours without being subject to a 14-day quarantine.

Turkish Airlines will ground all international flights except five routes from March 27 to April 17, the national flag carrier announced on March 22.

"As of March 27, we will suspend all our international flights except Hong Kong, Moscow, Addis Ababa, New York, and Washington, until April 17," the company's CEO Bilal Ekşi said on Twitter.

Hesitation of the pilots and the air traffic controller, rapid change in wind speed and the age-worn runway at Istanbul's Sabiha Gökçen Airport have been pointed as possible causes of the plane accident which left three dead and 180 injured on Feb. 5.

The excuse that the government had resorted to in early August when it deviated from the norm in the way it legislated in Parliament did initially carry some water.

At the time, the government sought to justify its 11th hour amendments to legislation concerning labor relations on the grounds that the issue had to be resolved before Parliament closed for the summer recess.

In response to the increasing number of commuter complaints over the new electronic ticketing system for public transport in the capital, the Athens Urban Transport Organization (OASA) has decided to commission a study in a bid to help improve the situation.

Some 1 million vehicle owners have just four days left before Saturday's deadline by which their car, truck or motor cycle must have passed a roadworthiness test at a public or private roadworthiness testing center (KTEO), otherwise they face an additional fine of 150 euros to be imposed through the Finance Ministry's Taxisnet.