With the war between Ukraine and Russia continuing with a heavy toll on civilians, Turkey is pursuing efforts to evacuate its citizens from the country as 2,163 more nationals leaving several Ukrainian provinces via trains and buses are set to reach Turkey late Monday.
In a tweet, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announced that 2,163 citizens have left for Turkey from Lviv, Odessa, Kharkiv and Dnipro.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the same day during the cabinet meeting announced that 5,000 Turkish citizens had been evacuated already to Turkey and other countries. "We will continue evacuation efforts through different channels according to the demands and developments," he said.
Turkish citizens poured into the country in recent days as violence in Ukraine is ongoing. On Monday, 220 citizens entered Turkey through western Edirne province’s Kapıkule border gate on five buses.
Businessperson Asım Kayan told Anadolu Agency (AA) that he is happy to have reached Turkey after a difficult journey. Saying that he hopes for the war to end, Kayan said that many people stayed until the last moment in hopes that diplomacy would prevail.
Uğurkan Keskin, another citizen, said they waited for a long time at the Ukrainian border and that the journey to Turkey took 80 hours. He added that there are still people left behind waiting to be evacuated. "We have friends in shelters. They have to leave there. We will be happier when they have returned."
Turkish nationals who were evacuated from Ukraine continued to enter Turkey on Monday through the northwestern Hamzabeyli border gate with Bulgaria as the conflict continues.
A group of 184 Turkish nationals, mostly students evacuated from Ukraine, arrived in the country thanks to the Foreign Ministry's coordination.
Speaking to AA, Seçkin Ali Bakımcı, who was in Ukraine for university, thanked the Foreign Ministry for remaining in close contact before and during the evacuation process.
Another student in Odessa, Erhan Yıldız, said a missile fell near the dormitory where he was staying.
"Then, we heard that soldiers entered the airport and its surroundings ... We immediately went to the shelters in the dorm.
"Ukrainian soldiers made hand signals indicating that we should turn off the lights and not go out," he added.
Yıldız said that during that time, the Turkish Consulate was in constant touch with them.
Savaş Ateş, who worked in Ukraine, said many buses were set to come to Turkey.
"Thanks to this consulate, thanks to Turkey, of course, the evacuation continues. The only problem is Kyiv, I think, there is no evacuation situation there. All students are in the shelter as far as I know.
"They (Russian forces) even shoot at Turkish people, and our friends were shot, some are now in the hospital," Ateş added.
Meanwhile another group of 100 citizens, among them students, on the same day entered Turkey through the Hamzabeyli border gate. A worker, Seyit Çıta, said he came from Kharhiv after a bombardment of the city began.
"If we had not been able to leave when the bombs started to fall, we would never be able to," he said, indicating that they drove with private cars until Moldova and then got on buses.
Deputy Foreign Minister Yavuz Selim Kıran on Friday announced the evacuation plan for Turkish nationals in Ukraine via land borders. "We have started our evacuation operations by land from Ukraine," Kıran wrote on Twitter.
Turkey is "in close cooperation with the countries of the region to facilitate the passage of our citizens," who will either leave through the ministry’s evacuation operations or by their own means via the border gates.
Kıran also outlined the measures that the nationals will have to adhere to when they pass through the land border gates.