The number of Turkish citizens evacuated from Ukraine has reached 14,824 since the beginning of the Russian invasion, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announced, adding that 172 more Turkish citizens left Ukraine Monday.
Çavuşoğlu said on Twitter that the latest group of citizens departed from Kyiv, Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kharkiv, Poltava, Bila Tserkva and Konotop. He noted while 130 people were evacuated from Bila Tserkva, Lviv and Chernivtsi by train, and 42 people were evacuated from Kharkiv, Poltava and Konotop by buses and minibuses.
"The number of our citizens we evacuated has reached 14,824. I wish you a safe journey," Çavuşoğlu said
Meanwhile, a group of Meskhetian Turks evacuated from Ukraine settled in Erzincan.
Meskhetian Turks, most of whom are Turkish citizens, were brought from Ukraine in groups in 2015 and settled in the Üzümlü district of Erzincan, upon the instruction of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and some of them returned to Ukraine afterward. After the Russian invasion began, they returned to their homes in Üzümlü district of the eastern province of Erzincan after a five-day journey organized by the Foreign Ministry. The Meskhetian Turks were welcomed by their relatives.
Ruslan Kaya, talking about the current situation in Ukraine, said, “I am grateful to our state (Turkey) for arranging the evacuation.”
This moving and relocation reflect the reality of life for Meskhetian Turks. In 1944, they were expelled from their homeland – the Meskheti region of Georgia – by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in an attempt to remove Turks from the shores of the Black Sea. They faced discrimination and human rights abuses before and after deportation. During that period, they migrated mainly to three countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. However, some experienced another migration in 1989 when ethnic clashes started in Uzbekistan, and they traveled to eastern Ukraine in 1990. Some of them have seen three deportations in their lives while the others have endured two separations.
Turkey has been coordinating Mariupol evacuation efforts with the Russian Defense Ministry, sources from the Turkish Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
Noting that the mines laid on the roads have been cleared by Russia after work and coordination efforts with Turkey, sources said work is also ongoing to open humanitarian corridors and the entrance of buses and trucks in the Ukrainian city.
“We expect the evacuation of our citizens from Mariupol as soon as possible, depending on the Russian Defense Ministry’s evaluation of the security situation,” sources said.
Speaking about evacuations from Mariupol, Çavuşoğlu said 2 buses will depart from Lviv and 1 bus from Odessa. “Lavrov called me at midnight, we are waiting for evacuations from Mariupol,” he added.
A rocket fell on Friday around 700 meters (2,297 feet) away from a mosque that currently houses 30 Turkish nationals.
Along with those in the mosque, there are 86 Turkish nationals in the city waiting to be evacuated.
Russian troops put a blockade on the strategic Ukrainian port city Mariupol, the mayor announced Saturday.
Capturing Mariupol, a city of about 450,000 people on the Azov Sea, would represent a bigger prize for Russian forces as it would deal a severe blow to Ukraine's maritime access and connect troops coming from annexed Crimea and the Donbass.
Since Russia launched its war on Ukraine on Feb. 24, more than 2.5 million people have fled to other countries, with some 2 million more displaced within the country.
At least 564 civilians have also been killed and 982 others injured in Ukraine, according to U.N. estimates.
While the European Union, United States and others have imposed sanctions on Moscow, many companies and global brands have also suspended operations in Russia.
