MANAVGAT (Dispatches) – Turkish firefighters made progress Friday containing deadly wildfires that forced the evacuation of entire villages and Mediterranean coast hotels already reeling from the shock of the coronavirus pandemic.
Blazes that erupted Wednesday to the east of the tourist hotspot Antalya on Turkey’s southern coast have officially killed four people and injured nearly 200.
But they have also threatened to scare off tourists who had only just started to return to Turkey in what President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had hoped would be a boon for the developing country’s fragile economy.
The soaring flames turned summer skies dark orange over five-star hotels and villages dotting rolling hills that have been parched by another dry summer.
They had spread by Thursday evening to the Aegean Sea on Turkey’s western coast and spanned a region stretching 300 kilometers (185 miles) and covering most of the country’s top resorts.
Local resident Gulen Dede Tekin came with his family to a five-star hotel in the Mediterranean coast city of Manavgat on Thursday morning and at first thought nothing of the fires raging beyond the hills.
Russia has sent three giant aircraft and Turkey’s historic rival Greece -- at odds with its neighbor on a wide range of regional disputes -- said it was “ready to help”.
The blow the fires threaten to deal to Turkey’s tourism-dependent economy and the admission that the country had no firefighting planes has put Erdogan’s government under pressure.
Turkish police and intelligence are investigating the causes of wildfires raging in the country’s south, Erdogan said on Friday, adding that Russian and Ukrainian planes are being used to extinguish the fires.
“The investigation into these fires that started simultaneously in different areas continues. Intelligence and the police are working hard. The results will be announced. We extinguish the fires using four to five planes and 45 helicopters. There are planes from Russia and Ukraine, and one more plane will be transferred from Azerbaijan,” Erdogan told reporters.
Erdogan’s office has officially blamed the fires on arson and unspecified “attacks”.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced the arrest of five people on suspicions of starting one of the blazes in the southern city of Osmaniye.
“Who started these fires?” he asked in televised comments. “We, as well as our citizens, have our suspicions.”
The private DHA news agency said two children -- one eight and the other 10 years old -- admitted under questioning in the presence of their teacher that they accidentally started one of the fires by burning their books.