Commercial flights between Turkiye, Syria resume after 13 years
Istanbul, Jan 23 (AP): Commercial flights between Turkiye and Syria resumed on Thursday after 13 years with a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Damascus.
Turkish media showed Syrian families draped in their national flag singing pro-opposition songs and cheering as they prepared to board flight TK0846 to Damascus.
Passengers continued their celebrations inside the plane, singing the uprising anthem “Hold your head up high, you are a free Syrian.” One man sobbed while waiting for takeoff.
“I missed Syria and am happy to fly back,” said Fuad Abdulhalid, who has lived in Turkey for 12 years.
Another passenger, Nail Beyazid, expressed hope as he prepared to visit his home for the first time since fleeing from Syria.
“We are very happy that (Syria) was liberated, and the situation is very good,” Beyazid said. “We had a house, a factory. We also had cars, which are gone now. We are going back to take a look.”
Since the lightning rebel offensive that ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad a month ago, Arab and Western countries that had cut off relations with the former government have been reopening diplomatic relations with Syria's new de facto authorities, headed by the Islamist former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS.
The first international commercial flight since Assad's fall, a Royal Jordanian Airlines plane, landed in Damascus earlier this month.
Turkiye, a key ally of Syria's new authorities, has expressed its intention to invest in its economy and help its ailing electricity and energy sectors.
Turkish Airlines CEO Bilal Eksi announced earlier this month that the airline would fly three times a week between Istanbul and Damascus. The move followed a visit to Ankara by Syria's foreign minister, Asaad al-Shibani, who met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other officials.
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UP: 53-year-old lifer dies in Etah jail; probe on
Etah (UP) (PTI): A 53-year-old inmate lodged in the Etah district jail died on Saturday while undergoing treatment for chest pain, a jail official said.
According to the Jail Superintendent, Ankeshita Srivastava, Jitendra alias Bhura, a resident of Bijauri village in Kotwali Dehat area of the district, complained of severe left chest pain and high blood pressure on Saturday morning.
When his condition worsened, at around 10.35 am, he was admitted to Etah's Veerangana Avantibai Lodhi Autonomous State Medical College (VALASMC), where he was declared dead at around 10.45 am, she said.
The deceased inmate was lodged in the district jail on April 7, last year, and was serving a life sentence in a case of murder. In addition, two other cases were pending against him, the Jail Superintendent said.
His family has been informed about the incident, she added.
Police have sent the body for a post-mortem, and an investigation is underway, the officer said.
Further action will be taken upon the receipt of the report, she added.
