 Turkish citizens arrive at Istanbul's Atatürk airport from Tunisia. AA photo |
A Turkish Airlines plane brought 333 Turkish citizens back to Turkey from Tunisia on Sunday after widespread protests toppled the North African nation’s longtime president and led to nationwide chaos.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry sent the Boeing 777 aircraft to evacuate Turkish people, including eight infants, from Tunisia. The plane received special permission to take off from Enfidha Airport in Tunis as Tunisia’s air space was closed.
There is chaos in Tunisia, passenger Nilüfer Kaygısız, the undersecretary of the Turkish Embassy in Tunis, said after arriving in Istanbul.
“Minutes before we departed from Tunisia, Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi was dismissed. Under the Tunisian constitution, Fouad Mebazaa, the former president of the lower house of parliament, became the interim president. An election will be held within 45 to 50 days. Then a presidential election will take place. But protests and looting have been continuing in the streets,” he said.
“I will stay in Turkey for a while. Later, I will return to Tunisia. I brought my children to Turkey,” Kaygısız said.
The group flown to Istanbul was part of a 1,000-strong Turkish community based in Tunisia, Turkey’s ambassador to the North African country said earlier. “We will help all Turkish citizens who want to return to Turkey,” Ambassador Akın Algan said. “There are no immediate reports of casualties among Turkish citizens [in Tunisia]. One Turkish citizen’s gift shop was burned down. He suffered damage of nearly 200,000 Tunisian dinars [216,353 Turkish Liras].”
Weeks of violent protests over unemployment, food price rises and corruption left dozens of people dead in Tunisia. The wave of rallies was sparked by the suicide of unemployed college graduate Mohamed Bouazizi, who torched himself last month after police confiscated his fruit cart, cutting off his main source of income. Tunisian strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali stepped down after 23 years in power and fled Friday for Saudi Arabia.
Tunisia’s main political parties held talks to form a national unity government as soldiers patrolled the streets Sunday amid fears of a backlash by supporters of Ben Ali. Around 1,500 protesters also staged a peaceful rally in the central Tunisian town of Regueb in which they condemned the political talks in the capital, saying the new government would not be truly democratic, a local trade-union leader said.
Fouad Mebazaa, the former president of the lower house of parliament, has now been sworn in as interim president, ordering the country’s first multiparty government to be formed.
Tunisian police meanwhile arrested the head of the presidential guard Sunday as well as dozens of others suspected in drive-by shootings in an attempt to restore calm to the North African nation after the historic ouster of Ben Ali.
A French photographer from the EPA agency died Sunday after being hit in the head by a tear-gas canister during the protests in central Tunis on Friday, his relatives and a source at the French consulate said.
A source at the military hospital in Tunis said earlier Sunday that Imed Trabelsi, a nephew of the wife of Ben Ali, was stabbed and died Friday – the same day the president fled to Saudi Arabia.
On the streets, meanwhile, the unrest was frightening. A fire Saturday at a prison in the Mediterranean coastal resort of Monastir killed 42 people as sporadic gunfire echoed around the capital and looters ransacked shops.
European travel companies are also rushing to retrieve thousands of tourists on package tours to Tunisia. Tour companies in Britain and Germany have started an airlift process, sending planes to Tunisia to bring back tourists anxious to return home.
* Compiled from Anatolia news agency, Agence France-Presse and Associated Press reports by the Daily News staff.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry sent the Boeing 777 aircraft to evacuate Turkish people, including eight infants, from Tunisia. The plane received special permission to take off from Enfidha Airport in Tunis as Tunisia’s air space was closed.
There is chaos in Tunisia, passenger Nilüfer Kaygısız, the undersecretary of the Turkish Embassy in Tunis, said after arriving in Istanbul.
“Minutes before we departed from Tunisia, Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi was dismissed. Under the Tunisian constitution, Fouad Mebazaa, the former president of the lower house of parliament, became the interim president. An election will be held within 45 to 50 days. Then a presidential election will take place. But protests and looting have been continuing in the streets,” he said.
“I will stay in Turkey for a while. Later, I will return to Tunisia. I brought my children to Turkey,” Kaygısız said.
The group flown to Istanbul was part of a 1,000-strong Turkish community based in Tunisia, Turkey’s ambassador to the North African country said earlier. “We will help all Turkish citizens who want to return to Turkey,” Ambassador Akın Algan said. “There are no immediate reports of casualties among Turkish citizens [in Tunisia]. One Turkish citizen’s gift shop was burned down. He suffered damage of nearly 200,000 Tunisian dinars [216,353 Turkish Liras].”
Weeks of violent protests over unemployment, food price rises and corruption left dozens of people dead in Tunisia. The wave of rallies was sparked by the suicide of unemployed college graduate Mohamed Bouazizi, who torched himself last month after police confiscated his fruit cart, cutting off his main source of income. Tunisian strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali stepped down after 23 years in power and fled Friday for Saudi Arabia.
Tunisia’s main political parties held talks to form a national unity government as soldiers patrolled the streets Sunday amid fears of a backlash by supporters of Ben Ali. Around 1,500 protesters also staged a peaceful rally in the central Tunisian town of Regueb in which they condemned the political talks in the capital, saying the new government would not be truly democratic, a local trade-union leader said.
Fouad Mebazaa, the former president of the lower house of parliament, has now been sworn in as interim president, ordering the country’s first multiparty government to be formed.
Tunisian police meanwhile arrested the head of the presidential guard Sunday as well as dozens of others suspected in drive-by shootings in an attempt to restore calm to the North African nation after the historic ouster of Ben Ali.
A French photographer from the EPA agency died Sunday after being hit in the head by a tear-gas canister during the protests in central Tunis on Friday, his relatives and a source at the French consulate said.
A source at the military hospital in Tunis said earlier Sunday that Imed Trabelsi, a nephew of the wife of Ben Ali, was stabbed and died Friday – the same day the president fled to Saudi Arabia.
On the streets, meanwhile, the unrest was frightening. A fire Saturday at a prison in the Mediterranean coastal resort of Monastir killed 42 people as sporadic gunfire echoed around the capital and looters ransacked shops.
European travel companies are also rushing to retrieve thousands of tourists on package tours to Tunisia. Tour companies in Britain and Germany have started an airlift process, sending planes to Tunisia to bring back tourists anxious to return home.
* Compiled from Anatolia news agency, Agence France-Presse and Associated Press reports by the Daily News staff.
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