Turkey’s national flag carrier, on Thursday, said that it has resumed flights to the Syrian capital, Damascus, after a break of nearly 13 years, state news agency Anadolu reported.
Anadolu reported that a plane with 349 passengers took off from Istanbul International Airport for Damascus on Thursday morning in first such flight since April 2012.
Turkey has taken in the most refugees from Syria in the world at around three million, according to official figures.
Many Syrians are returning to their home country for the first time since the fall of long-time ruler, Bashar al-Assad, in early December, Anadolu reported.
Pictures showed travellers boarding the plane with the Syrian flag slung around their shoulders.
“I feel like I’m in a dream,” Anadolu quoted passenger Ahmet Kiraz as saying. Living in Turkey since 2012, he had lost hope that he would ever be able to return to Syria, Kiraz added.
Turkish Airlines had suspended direct flights to the neighbouring country in the wake of the civil war that began in 2011.
The airline had previously announced that it was planning three flights a week to Damascus.
A company spokesman said details would be announced later in the day.
