Originally Posted by
DaveS
Like others, I was disappointed to see Turkey put on the UK's red list. To me it seems hard to justify given how cases are falling in Turkey and yes politics may be involved here. However, I hope Turkeys inclusion on the list is short lived. Logically it should be removed soon, not that logic has much to do with UK government policy.
I'm not sure what role political considerations might play in this, apart from the obvious one of protecting the health of people in the UK.
I think there's been a polite measure of scepticism about Turkey's position ever since the last year's fudge in disease reporting came to light.
THY has made heroic attempts to maintain the viability of its intercontinental hub at Istanbul. A consequence of this has been connecting passengers from infection hot-spots circulating airside at IST. My understanding is that the requirement for a Covid-negative test before embarkation on the Istanbul leg is driven by immigration regulations at the final destination. I'm open to correction if I'm wrong
Join those two plot lines with relatively high reported levels of transmission in the country, and the break-of-journey quarantine by-pass dodge, and it's not all that surprising that THY flights from Istanbul are regarded as potential vectors of disease. Inconvenient and unwelcome, but understandable in a world where Tristan da Cunha might be the answer to our summer holidays.