In the last decade, the prestige of the Turkish passport has significantly diminished, as indicated by the latest figures from the Henley Passport Index based in London.
The number of countries Turkish passport holders cannot enter without a visa has increased from 38 to 52 between 2014 and 2024. This decrease in value places the Turkish passport as the second most devalued in the world, following closely behind Venezuela.
The Henley Passport Index, which evaluates the value and validity of world passports, revealed in its 2024 report that the most powerful passports belong to Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan and Singapore, each allowing visa-free access to 194 countries. In contrast, Turkish passport holders now face restrictions in more countries, ranking Turkey 54th among 199 countries.
The assessment considered travel between 199 countries to 227 destinations. The top-ranking countries require visas for only a handful of destinations like Algeria, Cuba, Ghana, Russia and India, with on-arrival visas needed for Cambodia and the Seychelles.
Venezuela is the only country that has seen a more significant devaluation of its passport than Turkey. On the other end of the spectrum, the Afghan passport is ranked the lowest, providing visa-free access to only 28 countries, followed by Syria and Iraq, with 29 and 31 countries, respectively.
The index also highlights the next tier of valuable passports, with Finland, the Netherlands, South Korea and Sweden in second place, allowing entry to 192 countries without a visa. Austria, Ireland, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom occupy the third tier.
The list of the least powerful passports includes Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Sudan, Eritrea, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, North Korea, Libya, Nepal, Palestine, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, whose citizens are largely restricted to visa-free travel to neighbouring countries only.
