Eid al-Fitr

Holiday bookings have started to pick up at the end of March after both local and foreign holidaymakers either delayed or cancelled travel plans in the wake of the devastating earthquakes in early February.

Some 28 people were killed on roads in the first four days of the Eid al-Adha holiday, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has announced.

"While eight people have died on July 8, eight died the day after, the first day of the holiday," Soylu said on social media. "Nine have died on the second day, while three have died on the last day of the festival."

Millions hit the road as Türkiye is celebrating the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which marks the end of the annual Hajj pilgrimage and the second most important religious festivity after Eid al-Fitr, causing traffic jams in many cities.

Deaths due to road accidents during the Eid al-Fitr holiday declined by 61 percent this year, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has said.

Even though the Eid holiday has already ended, and many people returned to their home towns, police units will remain on duty to conduct traffic inspections until the end of the week, the minister wrote on Twitter.

In the first two days of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, six cruise ships brought more than 4,700 visitors to the Kuşadası district of the western province of Aydın on the Aegean coast.

Another 3,000 travelers also arrived in the famous resort town on the last day of the Eid holiday.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog extended his wishes to Turks on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr in a phone conversation with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the presidential office has said.

The capacity of the country's first pet cemetery, which was opened in the northwestern province of Bursa's Osmangazi district in 2017 by the municipality, has reached some 1,200 graves.

According to local officials, there is no more space in the cemetery, which is located inside Europe's biggest treatment center for stray animals.

Ljubljana – Nevzet Porić, mufti of the Islamic community in Slovenia, stressed in his address marking Eid al-Fitr on Monday morning that the Covid-19 epidemic had brought all the weaknesses of the society to the surface in the last couple of years. He warned that the Islamic community in Slovenia had received no Covid aid form the state.

The three-day Eid holiday has started with rainfall in all seven regions of the country, with wind speed reaching up to 50 kilometres per hour in the western provinces.

"There will be pelting rain and thundery showers across all the country's coastal and eastern provinces," the Turkish State Meteorological Service said.

Leaders of political parties issued messages on the occasion of the Eid al-Fitr, with the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) party leader suggesting that Turkey needs a major change for its future.

"For a genuine feast in Turkey, we need a major change and the prevalence of meritocracy," Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said in a message on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr.