DNA Edit: Tourists, stay away - Turkey’s interests in India are too deep to annoy New Delhi

In an ideal world, India and Turkey should have no reasons to be in rival camps. Cultural relations between ancient India and Anatolia date back to the Vedic Age before 1000 BCE. There are deep historical connections between India and Turkey.

The first exchange of diplomatic missions between Ottoman Sultans and the Indian sub-continent’s Muslim rulers dates back to 1481-82. The Turkic impact on India in areas such as language, culture and civilisation, art and architecture, and costumes and cuisine is significant — there are over 9,000 words common in Hindustani and Turkish languages.

Gandhi himself took a stand against the injustices inflicted on Turkey at the end of World War I. Yet Turkey’s insistence on seeing Pakistan as a co-religionist has traditionally thrown the spanner in the works. Bilateral ties have improved over the years, except when it comes to Ankara backing Islamabad on Kashmir.

India has largely constrained its relations with Turkey because of close Turkish-Pakistan military ties. This is the legacy of the time when both countries were part of CENTO, an organisation that the US had nurtured to oppose the Soviets.

More recently, New Delhi has been concerned with Turkey’s open support for Pakistan on Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370, which frankly speaking, is an act of hostility. Yet, if Turkey wants Indian investment to keep flowing into its country and wants this country’s tourists to flock to its shores, its latest position on Kashmir will not help.

An increasing number of Indian tourists — fast emerging as among the world’s largest group of travelers, thanks to a booming economy and growing incomes — are being wooed by the world and Turkey is no exception. The Turkish Tourism Board in India revealed that between January to July, 2019, Turkey registered a 56% increase in the number of Indian tourist arrivals in comparison to the same period last year, hosting 1.3 lakh Indian visitors. Importantly, the Turkish Tourism Board expects to get around 2.5 lakh Indian tourists by the end of this year.

In February-March this year, Turkey successfully conducted its well received six-city “Destination Turkey” road show across India. Indian tourist should think twice about visiting a country that is opposed to their national interests.

At the moment, there is also the strategic interest to watch. India is keen to know what the US does with Turkey for acquiring S400 missiles from Russia. India is on course to buy a similar system, but can only do so at the risk of annoying the US. Turkey also has to take its business interests with India into concern — its religious equations with Pakistan notwithstanding. 

More than 150 companies with Indian capital have registered businesses in Turkey in the form of joint-ventures, trade and representative offices. These include some of India’s blue chip companies like TATA Motors, Reliance, Mahindra and Mahindra, Wipro, Dabur and Ispat, among many others, while Turkey ranks ranks 41st overall in terms of FDI inflows into India.

Turkey’s economic interests are too deeply entrenched with India to risk annoying New Delhi for a pauperised Pakistan.