ANKARA (Parliament Politics Magazine): An uncommon heavy snowfall over southeast Europe resulted in shutting down the Istanbul airport, and commuters were trapped in their cars around Athens.
The snowstorm blanketed swaths of the eastern Mediterranean, triggering outages and traffic chaos. Europe’s busiest airport shut in Istanbul on Monday, while vaccination centres and schools in Athens closed.
Flights from the Middle East and Africa to Europe and Asia were grounded due to the shutdown of Istanbul Airport, where the roof of one of the cargo terminals collapsed under heavy snow, inflicting no injuries.
According to AFP, this is the first time the airport has been closed since it replaced Istanbul’s old Ataturk Airport as a new base for Turkish airlines in 2019.
The first snowfall of the season was a tremendous issue for Istanbul’s 16 million citizens, who saw automobiles collide, skidding down sleet-covered, steep streets and highways converted into parking lots.
The governor’s office in Istanbul advised drivers that entering the city wouldn’t be possible if they came from Thrace, a region that stretches through Turkey’s European half to its western border with Greece and Bulgaria.
Because supplies couldn’t get through the snow, shopping malls shut down early, food delivery services ceased operations, and the city’s renowned “simit” bagel stands remained empty.
The storm shut down roads in southeastern and central Turkey before crossing into Syria, where it wreaked havoc on the country’s war-torn refugee camps in the north.
Last year, Istanbul Airport handled more than 37 million people, making it one of the world’s busiest airports.
However, President Recep Tayyip Erdoan’s detractors have long questioned his decision to build the airport on a lonely stretch of the Black Sea coast that is frequently shrouded in fog in the winter.
All flights have been stopped temporarily for air safety given the extreme weather conditions, the airport said in a statement, uploading photos on Twitter showing yellow snowploughs circling stuck planes.
The airport’s suspension was prolonged twice, with service not expected to resume until 4:00 a.m. (0100 GMT) Tuesday. The majority of Turkey’s important institutions remained open.
However, in Greece, where overnight temperatures plunged to – 14 degrees Celsius (6.8 degrees Fahrenheit), a session parliament was suspended and vaccination centres and schools in Athens were forced to close.
Despite police attempts to close off freeway entry points to the north of the city, hundreds of motorists were stranded in cars across the capital, with many of them screaming their rage on television channels.
In the early hours of evening, the police, firefighters and troops began working to free the stuck motorists.
Christos Stylianides, Greece’s Climate crisis and civil protection minister of Greece, apologised for the mess and faulted the firm in charge of the highway for failing to keep it open.
