Our Bureau
New Delhi
After the Turkish government decided to support Pakistan during the times of conflict between India and Pakistan, India has decided to cut down commercial ties with Turkey. The country’s sentiments towards Turkey are at their lowest and this can be seen in the visa applications for Turkey falling down a cliff. The visa applications for Turkey and Azerbaijan have fallen down by 42% as per the reports.
The reports have stated that in just 36 hours the number of users who have exited their visa application midway have risen by 60%. This is a major contradiction to the stats that were presented at the start of the year. In the beginning of the year the visa applications for Turkey and Azerbaijan were up by around 64% when compared to the stats at the same time last year.
Turkey’s stance with Pakistan has affected the sentiments of a lot of Indian citizens. The main impact can be seen on the Travelers from the metropolitan cities majorly. Visa applications from cities like Mumbai and Delhi have fallen quite low with a drop of 53%. Whereas some of the tier 2 cities have seen a slight drop in cancellation with just a sly 20%. The decline for the visa applications for solo travelers was quite steady but group travellers saw a steep decline with 49%.
The reports stated, “Travellers aged 25 to 34 were most likely to change course quickly, accounting for over 70% of mid-process application drop-offs for Turkey. Interestingly, women travellers were more likely to switch destinations entirely, with a 2.3 times higher tendency to reinitiate applications for Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, or Thailand.”
The whole boycott Turkey situation started after Pakistan used Turkish drones to attack India’s North-west region. Turkey and Azerbaijan also stood with Pakistan when Pakistan was attacking India. All of this was done despite the fact that India supported Turkey in their tough times. India launched “Operation Dost” to assist Turkey after the devastating earthquake in February 2023. India sent multiple batches of aid, including NDRF teams, search and rescue dog squads, medical teams, field hospitals, medicines, relief material, and specialized equipment to aid Turkey during their time of need.
