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Trabzon-Sochi ferry service to start operating on May 1 — Turkish official

Ferries capable of carrying 300 passengers, 200 cars, six buses and twelve bulk cargo containers would sail between the two cities, the head of the Turkish Trabzon Chamber of Commerce and Industry Erkut Celebi said

ANKARA, April 1. /TASS/. The regular ferry service between Turkey’s Trabzon and Russia’s Sochi will open on May 1, Erkut Celebi, the head of the Turkish Trabzon Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said on Saturday.

"The work on this issue has yielded positive results, and we reached agreements [with Russia]. On April 6, we are signing the agreement. On May 1 we are launching the Trabzon-Sochi service, and thus we will open our gateway to Russia," Celebi told the Star daily.

Celebi clarified that ferries capable of carrying 300 passengers, 200 cars, six buses and twelve bulk cargo containers would sail between the two cities. In addition, according to Celebi, Istanbul’s transport companies are ready to provide Trabzon with ‘sea buses’, the medium-sized ferries carrying passengers and cars, which are widely used in the Sea of Marmara.

The daily reported that Trabzon-Sochi ferry service was restarting after a nine-year break. The ferry service operated in 1992-2008, but then the number of voyages gradually decreased and came to a grinding halt in 2014.

Celebi did not elaborate on how the agreement on ferry communication would be signed. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is scheduled to visit Turkey on April 6-7, following an invitation from Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. The ministers are expected to talk about Ukraine, Syria and Nagorno-Karabakh, and to touch upon bilateral cooperation in areas of mutual interest, including trade, energy and tourism.

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