The Foreign Office was warning on Tuesday (April 18) that Turkey’s security environment “remains potentially volatile”.
It comes after the country has once again been thrust under the microscope after president Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in a referendum on Sunday (April 16) to grant him sweeping new powers.
Opponents said the vote was marred by irregularities and they would challenge its result, according to reports.
Erdogan said 25 million people had supported the proposal, which will replace Turkey’s parliamentary system with an all-powerful presidency and abolish the office of prime minister. Thousands of flag-waving supporters rallied in Ankara and Istanbul in celebration, while others protested.
While the country may have been hitting headlines for its political climate again recently (there was an attempted coup in July last year), the FCO stated on its website that “the situation has calmed”.
But, the FCO continued: “The security environment remains potentially volatile and a state of emergency is in place.”
Despite the fast-moving political situation in Turkey, tour operators are optimistic about tourism to the country. Jet2holidays is increasing summer 2018 capacity to Turkey by 30%.
“We have seen lots of demand this summer which is why we are adding more capacity and routes for summer 2018,” said a spokesperson.
The package holidays specialist’s programmes have gone on sale for East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle and Manchester airports with Birmingham, Stansted, Belfast and Leeds Bradford yet to
be launched when TTG went to press.
Sister airline Jet2.com will operate an exclusive route to Bodrum from Glasgow, while in Edinburgh, the carrier is adding new routes to Antalya and Dalaman.
Elsewhere, Thomas Cook said in March it was “beginning to see signs” of tourists returning to Turkey.
Chief executive Peter Fankhauser said: “After a slow start to the season and a tough year in 2016, we’re seeing early signs that customers are beginning to go back to Turkey and Egypt [across the group].”