Photo : AFP
The first of two naval ships evacuating Turkish citizens and their families from war-torn Lebanon successfully docked at a port in southern Turkey late Thursday evening. The TCG Bayraktar, which departed from Beirut at around 8:00 AM local time (0500 GMT), arrived at the port of Mersin approximately 13 hours later, carrying the first group of 966 evacuees.
As the ship approached the dock, a large crowd of journalists gathered along the quayside, ready to cover the significant event. Officials reported that a second vessel, expected to carry a similar number of passengers, was scheduled to arrive around midnight.
In total, Turkish authorities indicated that around 2,000 individuals had registered to leave Lebanon aboard the navy ships in this unprecedented evacuation by sea. Turkey, which has approximately 14,000 citizens registered with its consulate in Lebanon, initiated the evacuation in response to the increasingly deteriorating security situation in the country, a decision announced on Tuesday.
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Speaking to reporters in Beirut prior to the boats' departure, Turkish Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Baris Ulusoy explained that the evacuation marked a historic first, prompted by a growing number of requests from Turkish nationals in Lebanon seeking to return home. The ambassador also clarified that the Turkish government was allowing close relatives—who may not necessarily hold Turkish citizenship, such as spouses, children, or parents—to accompany the evacuees.
The security landscape in Lebanon has been precarious, particularly following the outbreak of the Gaza war a year ago. Since then, Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have engaged in nearly daily exchanges of fire along the southern border. The situation escalated further on September 23, when Israel intensified its military operations against Hezbollah, resulting in more than 1,200 fatalities in Lebanon and displacing over a million individuals from their homes.
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