The EU has introduced “secret hidden sanctions” against Turkey, which are hitting tourism hard. This is how Turkish media commented on the growing number of visa refusals from the European Union to Turkish tourists. As local experts add, Turkey’s desire to maintain economic relations with Russia, including the bid to receive Russian tourists in Turkey, played a significant role in attracting these sanctions.
As former diplomat Namik Tan, by the way, former press secretary of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ambassador to Washington, told local media, the visa issue is directly related to the country’s political reputation and weight. One of Turkey’s “problems” from the diplomat’s point of view is Russia’s use of Turkey as a kind of “maneuvering space” to circumvent American-European sanctions. In particular, some institutions in Russia made some important money transfers through Turkey, Mr. Tan said.
He added that “countries such as the United States are closely monitoring developments with the suspicion that Turkey will help Russia circumvent sanctions.” And the problems with issuing visas can be precisely related to “invisible sanctions” in this regard: “If you act against any international law in your economic, financial and trade legislation, it will also have invisible sanctions against you, in particular regarding the freedom of movement of your citizens,” the diplomat added.
He named the second factor as the recent increase in the number of illegal infiltrations from Turkey into Western countries – in particular, with a tourist visa, for which they enter irrevocably and are “dissolved” as illegals. Also, Turkey has become notorious for “gray” passports, the expert added.
We will remind, ordinary tourists to name another reason — the financial interest of the EU consulates in almost legal extortion of money from the population of Turkey. The mechanism is as follows: tourists applying for a Schengen visa are asked for a huge number of documents to complicate the procedure and increase the probability of any error in the documents, then tourists are made to wait for weeks, and in the end, most requests are rejected. At the same time, the money received during the visa application is not returned. The income of diplomatic missions is significant: as Turkish experts assure, since 2015, Turkish tourists have left more than 26 million euros in the consulates of European countries. At the same time, on average, in Turkey, the fee for applying for a Schengen visa is 120-125 euros, for a British visa – is from $130 to $1,105, and for a visa to the United States, it is about $200.
By the way, not only Turkey that is suffering. The Italo-Moroccan Association for the Protection of Human Rights and the Organization for the Promotion of Economic and Social Development (PDES) have announced that they are filing lawsuits by international lawyers against EU embassies in Morocco in the European Courts. The reason is the visa scandal that occurred after a large number of Moroccan citizens were denied permission to travel to European countries without explaining the reasons for the refusal. We are talking about several countries at once – explained the authors of the statement in the press: in particular, about the French embassy in Rabat. Visas were denied to both tourists and businessmen, as well as specialists, in particular doctors and engineers, who were thus not allowed to attend professional conferences, as well as students. “We believe that the reasons for these refusals were material, professional, as well as human prejudices,” claim the plaintiffs.