Human geography

Greece lifted lockdown restrictions Monday for hotels, open-air cinemas, golf courses and public swimming pools as the country ramped up preparations for the crucial summer tourism season to start in two weeks. Primary school children also returned to class.

An eerie silence has fallen over Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, one of the world's oldest, largest and most visited markets, where a raucous mixture of languages, cultures and commerce has buzzed for centuries.

Opposition-run municipalities led by Istanbul Mayor Imamoglu are finding creative ways to get round the President's attempt to stop them from collecting donations for those hardest hit by the crisis.

A quarrel broke out in central Thessaloniki in the early hours of Saturday when a motorist tried to drive through a crowd gathered outside a bar drinking to-go beverages and ignoring social distancing rules.

Istanbul's Arter museum opened a new online exhibition, titled 'Altan Gürman: A Pioneer of Contemporary Art in Turkey,' and more than 160 works from its collection on May 18 International Museum Day.

Greece applied for membership to the International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), the Migration Ministry announced in a press release on Tuesday.

The residents of Istanbul, Turkey's largest city by population, have ramped up their water use in the wake of the deadly coronavirus outbreak, but the water levels in the mega city's dams are falling.

Apart from the thrill of exploration and discovery, the Athena Research and Innovation Center's Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP) serves multiple purposes, including conserving, analyzing, studying, promoting and disseminating Greece's massive cultural capital.

A man in the northern port city of Thessaloniki was handed a one-year suspended sentence on Monday for flouting a government-ordered closure of retail stores as part of its plan to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

The 44-year-old was arrested in a household goods store inside the city's open Kapani (Vlali) market on April 9, after authorities found a customer.

The Austrian government has agreed to send Greece 181 containers to be used for the accommodation of migrants and refugees and as mobile healthcare facilities, following a request by Athens, according to the ministry of migration on Thursday.

Greece has had to place two camps on lockdown after 21 migrants tested positive for Covid-19.