ZAXO, Kurdistan Region— The number of visitors to Turkey from neighboring Kurdistan region has declined dramatically after Turkey introduced a new set of restrictions for visa applicants in December. The drop in number of visitors has affected the two international airports in Kurdistan as well as the main border crossing of Ibrahim Xelil to Turkey. Over 700 visitors from the Kurdistan region crossed the border gate every day before the new restrictions were put in place which reduced the number to around a dozen per day in February, according to Kurdish border officials. The new visa regulations were introduced as thousands of Kurdish migrants, especially young people, tried to reach Europe via Turkey. “It is not as easy as it was in the past to receive a Turkish visa since the applicants now need to wait for days for the consulate to issue the visa,” said the manager of the Sulaimani International Airport, Tahir Abdulla and added that at least 20 percent of the flights to Turkish destinations had decreased after the new regulations. There have been multiple daily trips from Kurdistan region’s two airports, Erbil and Sulaimani to Turkish cities including Istanbul and Ankara. “The conditions in Turkey will have direct impact on the tourism sector in Kurdistan region and eventually impact the airports financially,” Abdulla told Rudaw. Although not all Kurdish travelers visited Turkey as migrants, it is estimated that 37,000 people from Iraq’s Kurdish territories have left for Europe through Turkey since 2014. Turkey has sheltered some 2.5 million refugees from the war torn Syria over the past few years and could play a key role in preventing portions of these refugees from leaving the country towards the EU, where they hope to find stability. As the Kurdish New Year celebrations in March is approaching, cross border visits to and from Turkey is likely to increase. But ongoing clashes in Kurdish cities in Turkey and Kurdistan region’s war with ISIS will inevitably have an impact on the overall number of tourists.
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