Russians may soon need only internal passports to visit Turkey

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said yesterday that Russians would soon need only their internal passports to make visits to Turkey, TASS reports. Togrul Ismail, a docent of the Faculty of International Relations of the TOBB University of Economics and Technology (Ankara), stated in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza that the initiative would simplify visits to Turkey for Russians and boost the tourism stream to the country. The number of tourists visiting Alania, for example, dropped by 20% in January, due to the rising dollar and euro prices in Russia, the expert reminds.

The new entrance rules, according to Togrul Ismail, would increase the tourism flow from Russia by 500,000 people. In his words, only about 25% of Russians have international passports. A family of four would need to spend a lot of time and money to get them. Cyrillic passport formats would not be a problem in Turkey, where it would take a week to implement technologies needed for that.

Irina Tyurina, spokeswoman of the Russian Union of Travel Industry, confirmed that only 25% of the population had international passports. She noted that Turkey had been the most popular tourism attraction for Russians for 13 years.

Concerning implementation of the Turkish foreign minister’s idea, Tyurina expressed skepticism because no decisions had been made. In her words, discussions may take 5 years. The main problem, the official believes, is the Cyrillic in Russian documents. Moreover, Tyurina said that Russian national passports have no space for marks on border crossings, any unnecessary stamp in the passport renders it invalid.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said yesterday that Russians would soon need only their national passports to make visits to Turkey, TASS reports. Togrul Ismail, a docent of the Faculty of International Relations of the TOBB University of Economics and Technology (Ankara), stated in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza that the initiative would simplify visits to Turkey for Russians and boost the tourism stream to the country. The number of tourists visiting Alania, for example, dropped by 20% in January, due to the rising dollar and euro prices in Russia, the expert reminds.The new entrance rules, according to Togrul Ismail, would increase the tourism flow from Russia by 500,000 people. In his words, only about 25% of Russians have international passports. A family of four would need to spend a lot of time and money to get them. Cyrillic passport formats would not be a problem in Turkey, where it would take a week to implement technologies needed for that.Irina Tyurina, spokeswoman of the Russian Union of Travel Industry, confirmed that only 25% of the population had international passports. She noted that Turkey had been the most popular tourism attraction for Russians for 13 years.Concerning implementation of the Turkish foreign minister’s idea, Tyurina expressed skepticism because no decisions had been made. In her words, discussions may take 5 years. The main problem, the official believes, is the Cyrillic in Russian documents. Moreover, Tyurina said that Russian national passports have no space for marks on border crossing, any unnecessary stamp in the passport renders it inva