ANKARA, August 4. /TASS/. Turkey pays special attention to Russian holidaymakers' security and it take all the essential measure in that sphere, Ibrahim Kalin, a spokesman for Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan said on Thursday in an exclusive interview with TASS.
"There are no problems from the point of view of security," he said. "It’s important for us to make sure that tourists and other visitors from Russia feel secure in Turkey."
"In addition to it, we have the relationship that strengthened over years," he Kalin said. "Many Russian citizens view Turkey as a second home and come here every year to spend vacations."
The flow of tourists from Russia to Turkey fell almost to zero after last November’s incident, in which the Turkish Air Force brought down a Russian Sukhoi-24 bomber jet in the airspace over Syria. President Vladimir Putin then signed a decree on special economic measures towards Turkey.
The Russian authorities’ subsequent steps included a ban on chartered flights between Russia and Turkey and the sales of tours in the wake of a rise of the threat of terrorist acts there.
"The Turks and the Russians have centuries of friendly relations behind them," Kalin said. "Unfortunately, a short-term turbulence in bilateral relations depressed the size of incoming Russian tourists but after the two countries’ leaders made certain steps, the incoming tourism from Russia reopened again."
He underlined the hopes of the Turkish side that the overall number of Russian tourists would return to last November’s figures in the short-term and would grow further in the future.