Edirne

Foreign tourist arrivals in Turkey more than doubled in January compared to the same month of 2021, reaching almost 1.3 million, according to official data announced on Feb. 21. 

The number of foreigners visiting the country was 1.28 million in January, which jumped 151 percent from the same month in 2021, according to the Culture and Tourism Ministry data.

The Turkish Coast Guard last year rescued 23,676 irregular migrants in the Aegean Sea and Mediterranean Sea and 15,794 of them were pushed back by Greek authorities into Turkish waters.

In 2021, a total of 619 pushback incidents took place, according to data from the Turkish Coast Guard.

Locals have been holding a vigil following an attack on a statue of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the country, in the Black Sea province of Samsun where he began the Turkish War of Independence in 1919.

Turkish security forces have recovered the bodies of seven more irregular migrants, who froze to death after Greek border guards pushed them back, bringing the number of the fatalities to 19.

Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said the bodies of 12 irregular migrants were found near the İpsala border crossing between Turkey and Greece without shoes and stripped of their clothes.

With the Bulgarian government's decision to ease PCR test requirements for people arriving, business owners in the northwestern province of Edirne are hopeful of soon witnessing a heavy inflow of tourists from the neighboring country.

Bulgarians, who visit the northwestern Turkish province of Edirne mostly for shopping, take their PCR tests in the city before heading back to their country.

These tests cost around 100 Bulgarian lev, or some 600 to 700 Turkish Liras in Bulgaria, but health facilities in Turkey charge only 170 liras.

Some 40,000 birds reside in the Meriç Delta, located between the northwestern province of Edirne's İpsala and Enez districts, according to the General Directorate for National Parks and Wildlife.

The local officials' data is based on the number of the birds they counted recently.

A Greek police officer who was detained in Turkey's northwestern province of Edirne on Dec. 5 has been released by a local court with a ban on traveling abroad as authorities continue to sweep their mobile phones.

The 40-month restoration process has begun in the 446-year-old Selimiye Mosque, one of the masterpieces of Mimar Sinan, the chief Ottoman architect, in the northwestern province of Edirne, the provincial directorate for foundations has announced.

"The illuminated minarets [of the mosque] will be seen by the Greek side," Osman Güneren told İhlas News Agency on Nov. 30.

İlyas Kıvırcık, 86, makes a living by collecting scrap with his donkey "Gülşah" and dog "Çomar" on the streets.

"I earn an average of 10 to 30 per day from the scraps I collect. I also receive an old-age pension from the state. That money is enough for my donkey and my dog," he said.