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People walk in central Istanbul, Monday, April 26, 2021. Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced the country's strictest pandemic restrictions so far, closing businesses and schools and limiting travel for nearly three weeks starting Thursday to fight a surge in COVID-19 infections and deaths. Turkey had so far instituted partial lockdowns to curb infections and to keep the economy running as it faces a significant economic downturn.The measures will be in place until May 17. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Full COVID-19 lockdown adds to financial strain in Turkey

By MEHMET GUZEL and ZEYNEP BILGINSOY - Associated Press

FILE - In this Monday, March 8, 2021, photo, protesters chant slogans during a rally to mark International Women's Day in Istanbul. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a decree early Saturday, March 20, 2021, annulling Turkey's ratification of the Istanbul Convention, a blow to women's rights advocates, who say the agreement is crucial to combating domestic violence. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File)

Turkey withdraws from European treaty protecting women

By ZEYNEP BILGINSOY - Associated Press

Court keeps travel ban for pilots charged over Ghosn escape

By MEHMET GUZEL and SUZAN FRASER - Associated Press

FILE - In this Saturday, March 21, 2020, file photo, a municipality worker wearing a face mask and protective suit disinfects the area outside the historical Sultan Ahmed Mosque, also known as Blue Mosque, amid the coronavirus outbreak, in Istanbul. When Turkey changed the way it reports daily COVID-19 infections, it confirmed what medical groups and opposition parties have long suspected — that the country is faced with an alarming surge of cases that is fast exhausting the Turkish health system. The official daily COVID-19 deaths have also steadily risen to record numbers in a reversal of fortune for the country that had been praised for managing to keep fatalities low. With the new data, the country jumped from being one of the least-affected countries in Europe to one of the worst-hit.(AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File)

Turkey’s new virus figures confirm experts’ worst fears

By SUZAN FRASER - Associated Press

Garcia, van Uytvanck win 1st-round matches in Istanbul

Associated Press

Hercog wins in Istanbul 1st round, Watson retires from match

Associated Press

FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017 file photo, a man adjusts a victim's photograph displayed with floral tributes and Turkish flags, outside the Reina night club following the New Year's day attack, in Istanbul. A Turkish court has on Monday, Sep. 7, 2020 sentenced an Islamic State militant to life in prison over the New Year’s Eve attack on a nightclub in Istanbul that left 39 people dead in 2017. Albulkadir Masharipov of Uzbekistan was charged with membership in a terror group, murder and attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, among other charges. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, file)

Turkey gives IS militant 40 life sentences for 2017 attack

Associated Press

People visit St Savior in Chora church, known as Kariye in Turkish, in Istanbul, Friday, Aug. 21, 2020. Turkey on Friday formally converted former Byzantine church, St Savior in Chora, into a mosque, a month after it similarly turned Istanbul's landmark Hagia Sophia into a Muslim house of prayer, drawing international rebuke.(AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

After Hagia Sophia, Turkey turns another museum into mosque

Associated Press

Faithful wait at the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul, outside the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia, Friday, July 24, 2020. Hundreds of Muslim faithful were making their way to Istanbul's landmark monument Friday to take part in the first prayers in 86 years at the structure that was once Christendom's most significant cathedral and the &quot;jewel&quot; of the Byzantine Empire then a mosque and museum before its re-conversion into a Muslim place of worship. The conversion of the edifice, has led to an international outcry. (AP Photo/Yasin Akgul)

Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia opens as a mosque for Muslim prayers

By MEHMET GUZEL and SUZAN FRASER - Associated Press

Visitors walk towards the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia, in the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul, Saturday, July 11, 2020. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to join hundreds of worshipers Friday, July 24, for the first Muslim prayers at the Hagia Sophia in 86 years, weeks after a controversial high court ruling paved the way for the landmark monument to be turned back into a mosque. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Turkey names 3 imams, including professor, for Hagia Sophia

Associated Press

In this family photo made available by Dr. Caner Dilmener, Dr. Murat Dilmener, a professor of infectious diseases in Istanbul is pictured circa 2006, while he was the head of Internal Medicine Department in Istanbul University. Dr. Murat Dilmener died May 3, 2020, at age 78, of COVID-19 in the intensive care unit of the Maltepe Medical Faculty Hospital in Istanbul. His charity and compassion would inspire Turkish newspapers to dub Dilmener the “Robin Hood of the medical profession” and earn the professor and practicing physician the admiration of thousands of patients and students. (Courtesy of Caner Dilmener via AP)

Lives Lost: A doctor dubbed Turkey’s medical ‘Robin Hood’

By SUZAN FRASER - Associated Press

In this Sunday, May 10, 2015 file photo, visitors walk towards the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia, an UNESCO World Heritage site and one of Istanbul's main tourist attractions in the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul. Turkey's Council of State, the country's highest administrative court is expected Friday, July 10, 2020, to release a ruling on a petition requesting that a1934 decision that turned the Hagia Sophia into a museum be annulled.(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, FILE) **FILE**

Turkish court rules Hagia Sophia can be turned into a mosque

By Suzan Fraser - Associated Press

An aerial view of the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia, one of Istanbul's main tourist attractions in the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul, Saturday, April 25, 2020. The 6th-century building is now at the center of a heated debate between conservative groups who want it to be reconverted into a mosque and those who believe the World Heritage site should remain a museum. (AP Photo)

Court considers status of Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia

Associated Press

In this Friday, March 24, 2017, file photo, people walk backdropped by the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia, one of Istanbul's main tourist attractions, in the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul. The 6th-century building is now at the center of a heated debate between conservative groups who want it to be reconverted into a mosque and those who believe the World Heritage site should remain a museum. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)

Museum or mosque? Turkey debates iconic Hagia Sofia’s status

By Suzan Fraser and Ayse Wieting - Associated Press

A local resident trains a pigeon at an area, near the Ataturk Olympic Stadium, background, in Istanbul, Saturday, May 30, 2020. The UEFA Champions League final soccer match was scheduled to be hosted at Ataturk Olympic Stadium May 30 but is postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic and a new date for the final has yet to be announced amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.(AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Bazaar swabbed, tables spaced as Turkey eases restrictions

Associated Press

This book cover image released by Knopf shows &quot;Red Dress in Black &amp; White,&quot; a novel by Elliot Ackerman. (Knopf via AP)

Review: Elliot Ackerman’s latest is a tense tale from Turkey

By ROB MERRILL - Associated Press

A Turkish flag suspended between two skyscrapers flutters in the wind, in Istanbul, Thursday, April 23, 2020. Turkey celebrates National Sovereignty and Children's Day on the 100th anniversary of the foundation of Turkey's parliament. Turks in the city are marking their first national holiday under lockdown amid the new coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Ayse Wieting)

Minister: COVID-19 outbreak in Istanbul now under control

Associated Press

A passenger boat in the normally crowded but now mostly deserted Golden Horn with New Mosque in the background hours after the two-day curfew declared by the government to slow coronavirus spread, in Istanbul, Saturday, April 11, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.(AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Turkish minister offers resignation over weekend lockdowns

By SUZAN FRASER and AYSE WIETING - Associated Press

Mucella Yapici, one of defendants, celebrates after a court acquitted nine leading Turkish civil society activists of terrorism-related charges related to anti-government protests, including an entrepreneur known for philanthropy who has been jailed for more than two years, in Silivri, outside Istanbul, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Turkish philanthropist detained in new case after acquittal

By ZEYNEP BILGINSOY - Associated Press

Rescue members evacuate an injured person from the wreckage of a plane after it skidded off the runway at Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen Airport, in Istanbul, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020. The plane skidded off as it tried to land in bad weather, crashing into a field and breaking into pieces. Passengers had to evacuate through cracks in the smashed plane and authorities said 120 people were sent to the hospital with injuries. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

A rapid descent leads to screams on severed Turkish plane

By ZEYNEP BILGINSOY and MEHMET GUZEL - Associated Press