Qataris can now officially travel to Turkey without applying for a visa and vice versa, officials have announced.

The move follows a reciprocal travel agreement signed by the Emir and Turkey’s president in December.

According to QNA, a source at the foreign ministry’s Department of Consular Affairs said an agreement to abolish visa requirements to holders of Qatari passports took effect on May 28.

When the deal was reached in December, Turkish media quoted President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as saying:

“From now on, visas have been lifted between Turkey and Qatar. The citizens of the two countries can now travel easily. This was a last-minute step.”

The news comes a month before AtlasGlobal launches a new Doha-Istanbul route. That will make the Turkish city the only one to be directly connected to Qatar’s capital by four airlines.

Qatar and Turkey have been forging stronger political and military ties in recent years, and the Gulf country is planning to host a Turkish military base here soon.

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