Tourism warning: Avoid traveling to Turkey including Turkish Airlines until situation is more clear

Tourists and foreigners in Turkey should be aware of an ongoing situation. Low-flying military jets have been seen by eTN witnesses in both Ankara and Istanbul.

Passengers at Ataturk International Airport are seeing tanks and a lot of confusion.

Airline passengers booked anywhere on Turkish Airlines should use discretion when flying through Istanbul until there is a more clear picture what is happening.

Attempts by eTN to call any known contact at Turkish Airlines including the CEO’s mobile phone was impossible.

Gunshots were heard in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Friday, a Reuters witness said, as military jets and helicopters were seen flying overhead.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim says a group within the military engaged in an attempted coup, the Associated Press reported.

Ankara residents reported on social media that they heard F16s flying over the city, causing car alarms to go off.

Reuters witnesses in Istanbul, Turkey’s biggest city, also spotted helicopters overhead.

Broadcaster NTV reported that both of Istanbul’s bridges across the Bosphorus, the strait separating the European and Asian sides of the city, had been closed to traffic. CNN Turkey showed two military vehicles and a group of soldiers lined up at the entrance of one of the bridges in Turkey’s biggest city.

Soldiers had been deployed in other cities in Turkey, but did not specify which ones.

Dogan News Agency reported the national police directorate summoned all police to duty in Ankara.

eTN readers in Turkey can contact eTN for updates at [email protected]