ANKARA (Anadolu Agency via TASS) — Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said he doesn’t rule out that chartered flights between his country and Russia could be resumed earlier than regular air service.

Cavusoglu said on Saturday Ankara was in talks with various countries, including Russia, on travel-related matters.

The Minister said:

We want tourists [from Russia and Germany], who would like to come to Turkey by chartered flights, even if regular air service is nor resumed, to have a possibility to reach Turkey safely, spend their vacations here and return home.

Meanwhile, Turkey’ Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy told TASS earlier tourist flows to Turkey from Russia may drop by 40% in 2020 because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The first coronavirus case in Turkey was confirmed on March 10. It was a local resident who had returned from Europe. By now, the overall number of confirmed coronavirus cases in that country exceeds 155,000, with 4,308 fatalities and 117,602 recoveries.