Beginning
with July 1, The European Union opened its borders to visitors from 15
countries. The full list of the first 15 countries ranges from Algeria
to Uruguay, from Georgia to South Korea, from Serbia and Montenegro to
New Zealand, from Morocco to Canada. Europe will open its borders to
China as well, provided China opens up to travelers from the EU.
European doors
will remain closed to travelers from the United States, Brazil, and
Russia, due to the rate of the spread of coronavirus. Turkey, a
candidate member of the EU, which performed well above the EU average in
the Covid-19 struggle, however, is among those countries that the
travel ban from and to the EU will remain in effect.
Given the success of the Turkish
Covid-19 strategy, the disappointment expressed by the spokesperson of
the Turkish Foreign Ministry for the decision was not unexpected.
Indeed, Turkey’s coronavirus statistics,
for instance, in comparison to EU member Sweden, are much better. The
Turkish population is almost nine times as much as Sweden, but the
number of cases per 1 million is 2,370 in Turkey, while the figure
stands at 6,777 in Sweden. The death rate in Turkey is 60.8 per 1
million in Turkey, and 528.1 in Sweden. Even in comparison to Germany,
which has roughly the same population as Turkey and is lauded for a
successful Covid-19 strategy, Turkey seems to be doing as well as
Germany. The number of total confirmed cases in Germany is some 200,000
and in Turkey is some 195,000.
The reason for Turkey’s
exclusion from the EU’s reopening can be explained by political reasons
instead of public health concerns.
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