Russians detained in Turkey for headache pills and diarrhea

Russian citizens were going to transit to Thailand through Istanbul. In a Turkish city, three men and a woman were detained, their passports and phones were taken to police.

 

After 7 hours of interrogation, the men were released, and the woman, whose bag contained pills from the first aid kit, was left for further interrogation and examination of drugs. According to a Russian citizen detained in Turkey, she was first offered water only after 12 hours of interrogations after a media outcry, when news of the detention of Russians appeared in the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Istanbul.

 

On March 6, she was released and was able to leave the country. The Russians are confident that they were lucky because the news quickly got into the media and scared the Turkish police into publicity.

 

Ivan Surma, a professor at the Foreign Ministry’s diplomatic academy, said such detentions would have a bad impact on Turkey’s image, for which Russians are frequent guests. He also recommends travelers to install the application of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “Foreign Assistant”, in which you can register a trip, and this guarantees round-the-clock communication with the call center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.

 

“The app also has a hot red button. If something happens, you immediately press it, and the Foreign Ministry call center reacts and the embassy will start dealing with you.”