Fatih Kurtulmush, the manager of the world famous Grand Bazaar of Istanbul, announced the opening of one of the oldest and most colorful shopping centers in the world on May 8, 2021. The bazaar, one of the most important attractions in Istanbul, has been temporarily closed from March 23rd due to quarantine restrictions caused by the global coronavirus pandemic.
According to the Turkish edition of Hurriyet, the return of the Grand Bazaar to work is tentatively scheduled for June 1, 2021. However, this does not mean that the ancient market will immediately start working in the usual volume. According to Kurtulmush, half of the twenty-one entrances to the closed premises of the bazaar will initially work at best.
According to the chairman of the leadership of the Grand Bazaar, the passage to its territory will be completely controlled. Security posts will be installed along the perimeter of the market, and police officers specially appointed to be on duty at the bazaar will measure the temperature of everyone who wants to get to the market. Visitors will be reminded of the need to maintain a distance, and mask mode violators will simply not be allowed to enter the market.
These measures are necessary, since there is still a fairly high incidence of coronavirus infection in Turkey. From complications caused by this dangerous disease, among other things, seven traders who worked in the Grand Bazaar died.
The construction of the Grand Bazaar began in 1453 by order of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, immediately after the Turkish troops took the besieged Constantinople. By the 21st century, the Grand Bazaar has become one of the main attractions of Istanbul: now it consists of sixty-one covered streets and includes more than three thousand retail outlets. Before the start of the global coronavirus pandemic, the Grand Bazaar received more than one hundred and fifty thousand visitors daily.
