Charge d’affaires at the Indian Embassy in Ankara AVS Ramesh Chandra has said more Indian tourists will come to visit Turkey as relations between the two nations grow stronger, with Indian visitors expected to increase from last year’s 63,000 to 90,000 this year.
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| AVS Ramesh Chandra |
He was accompanied by Indian Consul General in İstanbul Mr. Vanlalhuma and Alaattin Özyürek from the Western Mediterranean Development Office (BAKA), as well as embassy staff, during Thursday’s visit.
“Indian tourists used to travel to the United States via London, but now they do the same via Turkey. Additionally, there was very small number of flights between Turkey and India in the past. Now we have more direct flights. That will further increase [Indians’] interest in Turkey,” said the diplomat, who is also the deputy chief of mission of the Indian Embassy in Ankara. He added that wealthy Indians choose Turkey’s luxurious palaces as venues for their wedding ceremonies and that such interest will also contribute to Turkey’s tourism revenue.
Hosting Indian and Turkish guests on Thursday was Tuncer Çetinkaya, bureau chief at Cihan’s regional office, Antalya Entrepreneurial Businessmen’s Association (AGİD) President Ahmet Yahya Taşçı and the Antalya Intercultural Dialogue Center (AKDİM). Underlining that Turkish-Indian ties have improved notably over the past three years, Chandra said official visits Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and President Abdullah Gül made to the rapidly growing country in 2008 and 2010, respectively, contributed substantially to those relations. “After those visits we observed a rapid jump in commercial relations. Last year, the bilateral trade level increased to $4 billion, and we recorded half of that in just the first four months of this year,” he said, adding that it is expected that the two nations will have traded $6 billion worth of goods by the end of 2011. Also announcing that a number of Indian companies are interested in investing in Antalya, Chandra said they may cooperate with AGİD in coordinating those possible investments, though he did not specify their size or nature. However, he said that, like Turkey, India is located in a region of multiple complexities and that therefore the two nations can also “act together” in the field of defense. Chandra also expressed hope that Turkey and India would increase their cultural and artistic cooperation. He said Antalya could be a destination for Indian filmmakers as they search for places to shoot their increasingly popular movies.
Discussing the recently held 9th Turkish Olympiads, which was held in various provinces throughout Turkey, Chandra said the event will help strengthen ties between the two countries. He said there should be more Indians learning Turkish. As part of his remarks during the meeting, he touted the quality of Today’s Zaman as a reliable media outlet in Turkey as well and said that he starts every day by reading the paper.
Published on Sunday’s Zaman, 03 July 2011, Sunday
