Prime Ministers Visit To Turkey Cancelled Indian Tourists Must Shun Turkey
The Government of India (GoI) has decided to put off a proposed visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Ankara, as a part of a number of measures showing its displeasure over Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erdogan’s UNGA (United Nations General Assembly) speech last month where he criticised its move on Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and called it an “ occupation “.
According to sources, the visit, which had been discussed when Mr. Modi met Mr. Erdogan in Osaka in June last, is unlikely to take place by year-end, as planned earlier.
This same Erdogan just ordered his forces to march inside Syria and also to take brutal action against the Kurds. India’s naturally warned Ankara against this kind of military operations in Syria this week. India has also taken firm decision to cancel the selection of Turkey’s Anadolu shipyard to build naval support ships for India for more than $ 3billion. This is the fall out of Indian anger and thus the retaliation over Turkey’s stand on Kashmir.
When asked, Ministry of External Affairs officials said no such visit by the Prime Minister was under discussion. However, Turkey’s Ambassador to India Şakir Özkan Torunlar told The Hindu that Mr. Modi’s visit was expected by his government.
“It is not just an expectation [PM Modi’s visit to Turkey]. It has been discussed recently, and we are now awaiting on alternative date proposals according to the PM Modi’s schedule in the next couple of months. The Government of India has to decide, but it certainly is being discussed, and we are awaiting dates from the South Block,” he said.
Well instead of expecting this visit, Turkey may soon find that Indian tourists may soon stop visit their country. Turkey will realize its follies when around 3 lacs visitors just stop coming to them every year. They may think that it is a small number but then visitors from other countries will also start dropping and soon instead of 20 million tourists per year, there will remain just a trickle. India may also place huge restrictions on flights of Turkish Airlines to India.
While the sources noted that rules for local procurement and security concerns over Anadolu’s work for the Pakistan navy were reasons for the likely cancellation, diplomatic sources said Turkey’s recent statements and its support for Pakistan at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on terror financing were the main reasons.
When asked, the Turkish Ambassador said he hoped the tender is retained. “It is a commercial issue; so I don’t know what will happen. Whenever PM Modi has spoken to President Erdogan, he has spoken of his “Make in India” concept and his desire to build ‘Smart Cities’. So we would like to go ahead with the shipyard project and not put it aside,” Mr. Torunlar stated.
“There may be one vertical, which doesn’t make India happy, but in other areas, we can work. Turkey too has other issues like the presence of Fethullah Gulen- affiliated terror groups in India… but we don’t bring that vertical on top of all other bilateral relations,” he said.
Pointing to the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to India last week, despite Beijing’s criticism of the government over Kashmir actions, he said it was a proof that India worked in various “verticals”.
The Ambassador said his government had not reacted to New Delhi’s criticism of Turkey’s “unilateral military offensive” against Syria on October 10, as all countries were “welcome to comment” on a global issue.
On Friday, in a joint statement with the United States, Turkey agreed to “pause” the operations for 120 hours to ensure the safety of civilians and to allow those belonging to the Kurdish groups YPG (PKK) to withdraw from the 32-km ‘safe zone’ along the border.
According to Mr. Torunlar, the operations would allow 4 million Syrians living in Turkey since 2011 to return to their homes. He also denied reports that the operations had liberated Islamic State (IS) terrorists from prisons in the safe zone, and accused YPG militia of having released them.
“We are on the same page as India in countering terrorism,” Mr. Torunlar added, but declined to comment on any comparisons to the government’s position that operations in Jammu and Kashmir also targeted only terror groups.
