Turkey is safe despite protests, says envoy

A Turkish official has reassured Saudis that it is safe to spend their holidays in Turkey despite the protests taking place in Istanbul and elsewhere.
Ahmad Gun, Turkish ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said the situation was stable.
“These protests are limited to a very narrow area and don’t affect tourists and visitors,” he said.
Abdullah Al-Ajhar, vice director for public relations at Saudi Arabian Airlines, said that Saudi reservations to Turkey were not affected by the recent unrest. All flights are on schedule.
“We didn’t notice any change or cancelation of reservations,” he said.
A Turkish Airline source said Saudi reservations to Turkey were not affected, and there was a growing demand to visit the country this summer.
The source minimized the effects of the Taksim Square protests. “I don’t think there is anything to worry about. We are used to these demonstrations in Turkey, but they are limited to a very small area,” he said.
“Saudi tourists have a wide variety of destinations to choose from, we have wonderful islands and cities like Borsah and Trabzon on the Black Sea and many other places,” he said.
Two of the most prominent trade unions in Turkey started a general strike yesterday to protest against police violence in dealing with the demonstrators. The strike took place on the eve of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s speech to defend the suppression of protests in Taksim Square. Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Guler condemned the strike saying the trade unions’ call for a general strike to support the protesters against the government was an illegal act. “There is a will to push people onto the streets, by illegal actions like the general strike,” he told journalists.
Erdogan told a crowd of 100,000 supporters that it was his duty to order the police to remove protesters from Gezi Garden after they defied his warning and stayed there.