After Ankara came out in support of Pakistan during the recent India-Pakistan war, a ‘Boycott Turkey’ campaign was started in India as Indians boycotted Turkish goods and cancelled tourist bookings to the country.
Turkey, which openly supported Pakistan during the recent India-Pakistan conflict after Operation Sindoor, is now paying a heavy price of the decision, as Ankara’s tourism economy has dipped by a massive 37 percent, primarily because of Indian tourists boycotting the country as a tourist destination.
Why India’s boycott hit Turkish economy?
After Ankara came out in support of Pakistan during the recent India-Pakistan war, a ‘Boycott Turkey’ campaign was started in India as Indians boycotted Turkish goods and cancelled tourist bookings to the country, resulting in a huge decline in the number of Indian tourists visiting to Turkey.
According to media reports, the number of Indian tourists who visited Turkey in June slumped to 24,250 from the 38,307 in the same month last year, a decline of 37 percent, while the numbers also dropped significantly in the month of May, dealing a major blow to Turkey’s tourism industry and its economy.
Notably, India-based travel portals such as MakeMyTrip, EaseMyTrip and Cleartrip have also stopped promoting Turkey as a tourist destination, resulting in further decline.
Following Turkey’s open support to Pakistan, India took a slew of measures to downgrade ties with Eurasian country, including cancelling major business deals with Turkish firms.
How Turkey supported Pakistan during Operation Sindoor?
Turkey, along with China and Azerbaijan, was among the few countries that openly supported Pakistan during the recent India-Pakistan conflict, and also armed the Pakistani forces with advanced military drones like the Bayraktar TB2, which were actively used against Indian installations during Operation Sindoor.
Following the conflict, Turkey has boosted its strategic and military ties with Pakistan, and is likely to offer its state-of-the-art ALKA-KAPLAN laser tank to Islamabad, which could pose a major threat to India as it would significantly boost the enemy’s capability to counter Indian UCAVs, such as those used to target terrorist and military infrastructure in Pakistan during Operation Sindoor
