ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish navy ships will evacuate Turks who have applied to leave Lebanon by sea on Wednesday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
The two ships were expected to set off for Beirut on Tuesday with a total capacity of around 2,000 passengers, the ministry said in a statement.
It said the evacuation process will continue in the following days if necessary, adding that the ships carrying out the evacuation will also transport humanitarian aid to Lebanon.
A foreign ministry source said that around 2,500 Turkish citizens had applied to be evacuated from Lebanon but that after checks it was determined that a ship capacity of 2,000 would be sufficient.
The naval ships will set off on Tuesday from Turkey’s eastern Mediterranean province of Mersin, the source said.
Turkey had previously said it was working with around 20 countries on preparing for a possible evacuation of foreign nationals via Turkey. Hundreds of people of various nationalities arrived in Turkey from Lebanon last week on a commercial ferry.
(Reporting by Daren Butler and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Louise Heavens)
