Photo : Collected
Citizens of Tajikistan will no longer be able to enter Turkey without a visa, according to a relevant decree published in Turkish official journal Resmi Gazete.
"It has been decided to cancel the visa-free regime for citizens of Tajikistan entering Turkey using ordinary passports," the decree signed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
The reasons for the decision were not specified, but all the four main suspects in the case of the March 22 terrorist attack on a concert venue near Moscow are citizens of Tajikistan. Two of them visited Turkey before the attack, with one of them posting photos on social media from Istanbul, including a photo near the Fatih mosque.
On Monday (1 April), Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported that the Turkish police had detained a Tajik man and a Kyrgyz woman suspected of plotting a terrorist attack in Istanbul on behalf of the Islamic State (IS, banned in Russia as terrorist).
Turkish lawmaker Mahir Polat from the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has welcomed the decision to introduce visas for Tajik nationals.
"One of the most important problems of Fatih and maybe Turkey is the settlement of people with unclear and dubious backgrounds, especially Tajiks," Polat said on X.
The lawmaker also raised questions on what the country's authorities knew about those who had previously arrived in Istanbul without a visa and whether authorities would check on these people.
Meanwhile, Tajik tour operators expect a decrease in tourist traffic to Turkey with the introduction of visa regime, because it will increase the cost of a trip for Tajik citizens, Nazira Davlatova, the director of the country's largest travel agency, Alliance Osiye Saekhat, said.
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