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Turkey Travel Advice For Australians After Airport Attack

AUSTRALIANS are being urged to reconsider their need to travel to Istanbul after a series of deadly suicide bomb blasts rocked Turkey’s main airport.

At least 36 people are dead and more than 140 injured after three suicide bombers targeted Istanbul Ataturk airport, the three busiest airports in Europe.

Turkish officials have blamed Islamic State militants for the attack, which is the latest in a series of recent attacks by militant groups targeting tourists in the major city.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has today urged Australians to reconsider their need to travel to Istanbul, as well as the capital Ankara, as they urgently work to determine whether any Australians are among the dead or injured.

“Many Australians are very familiar with the airport at Istanbul,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said today, pointing out many thousands of Australians had travelled to the fields of Gallipoli.

“Australia and Turkey have a common bond, both our countries’ foundation stories were told at Gallipoli.”
Mr Turnbull said he promised to “work relentlessly” with security agents to keep Australians safe.

This latest attack comes just three months after suicide bombers targeted Brussels Airport, killing 16 people and stoking airport security fears worldwide and is the sixth deadly terror attack in Istanbul this year — a string of violence that has begun to cripple Turkey’s tourism industry.

As in Istanbul and Ankara, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade warns Australians to reconsider travel to the provinces of Batman, Bingol, Bitlis, Gaziantep, Hakkari, Hatay, Kilis, Mardin, Sanliurfa, Siirt, Sirnak, Tunceli and Van.
Australians should avoid going within 10km of Turkey’s border with Syria. Turkey had stepped up controls at airports and land borders both with Syria and Iraq and deported thousands of foreign fighters, but has struggled against the threat of IS and attacks by Kurdish separatist groups.

 

 
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