At the weekend at the Turkish Antalya airport, a real hell was going on. Several groups of Russian tourists, including many young children, could not return home.
– It started with the fact that our tour operator took us to the airport, we were supposed to fly at 20:30. At the front desk we were told that the delay, we will fly at two in the morning. Then they moved it to 07:30 in the morning. We were promised a bus and settled in hotels. We waited for three hours, there were children, the elderly, and there was a spontaneous protest. People cooperated and demanded a representative of the airline. Only then we were taken to settle, but it did not work right away. Both the first and second hotels were occupied, direct participants in the events told the SHOT telegram channel.
Eyewitnesses say that, in addition to Anex, another tour operator – Odeon Tours – did not provide any assistance. Their representatives seem to have withdrawn themselves from solving the problem. Some of the tourists were simply taken to a hotel 20 minutes from the airport, given the keys and nothing more was said. Whether there will be a flight, what with the booking, how and when to return back is not clear.
“Anex representatives in Turkey are only interested in a Russian tourist in order to sell him excursions or a trip to friendly shops, and when it comes to solving real problems, they disappear,” one of the tourists told Life.
What is known about the travel company “Anex”
The Anex travel company was recently mentioned in connection with a criminal case initiated by the Investigative Committee of Russia against the managers of the Azur Air airline. They were suspected of giving a bribe. According to the security forces, the suspects issued the ex-head of the flight operation department of the Federal Air Transport Agency Maxim Kostylev (he quit the department in the spring of 2022) tickets to Turkey worth 4.7 million rubles below the market. Vouchers were issued just through the company Anex Tour.
Business media believe that Anex Tourism (revenue of 1.7 billion rubles in 2022) and Azur Air (revenue of 32 billion rubles) are part of the large Anex Tourism Turkish group, which is controlled by Turkish citizens Rustem, Serhat and Neshet Kochkar. Judging by the Spark database, at first glance there is no direct connection between the Kochkar family and Russian companies.
“Anex tourism” for a long time belonged to 42-year-old Asek Eshmulatov. He is from Khimki, where he lives modestly in an ordinary house. But a month ago, the travel company was rewritten to the Turk Zorbaz Shukru, who had never done business in Russia before.
Azur Air is formally owned by Lyudmila and Anna Fukalov. They are, respectively, the mother and sister of Natalia Kochkar, who is married to the co-owner of the Turkish group Anex Tourism.
