In the seventh month of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, hotels in Turkey stopped accepting cards of the Russian payment system “Mir”.
According to Middle East Eye, Russians are being denied bank card services amid pressure from the US and Europe on Ankara to comply with sanctions.
Cards of the Russian payment system “Mir” stopped being accepted in large five-star hotels in the resort city of Antalya.
According to the publication, one of the Alva Donna World Palace hotels in Kemer later informed customers that they did not accept cards for a short time due to a global outage, but are now processing them again. Other hotels have not resumed accepting “Mir” cards.
In general, “Mir” cards continue to be accepted in ATMs and stores in Turkey. Also, the situation may depend on which bank issued the card.
The war in Ukraine and pressure on Turkey:
On September 15, 2022, the US and the EU increased pressure on Turkey because the Russian payment system is connected to Turkish banks.
The EU fears that Turkey’s banking sector is a loophole that allows Russia to bypass sanctions.
Five large Turkish banks are connected to the Russian payment system “Mir”: Vakıfbank, Ziraat Bank, İş Bank, DenizBank, and Halkbank.
Two of them – the private bank DenizBank, owned by the UAE, and the state-controlled Halkbank – connected to the Mir system already after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation.
Brussels said it was preparing a delegation to express its concerns to Turkish officials.
In addition to Turkey, the crackdown on potential sanctions evasion loopholes is targeting countries in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Persian Gulf, officials said.