Turkey plans to retaliate against citizens of Schengen-associated countries if Turkish citizens continue to be denied Schengen visas.
Local media reports that the Turkish authorities have threatened to introduce a visa regime for citizens of the Schengen countries if the current situation does not improve.
Recall that Turkish citizens have been facing problems when planning trips to the European Union for several months due to the high level of visa refusals.
European Union officials see no problem. Allegedly, the increase in the number of refusals to issue visas and delays in issuing them is only “slightly higher than the global average.” In addition, the denials and delays “are not political and do not concern exclusively Turkish citizens.”
There are also recommendations for visa applicants. It turns out it’s simple: in order to avoid having their applications rejected, Turkish citizens need to make sure they submit their applications on time. At the same time, it appears that most applications were rejected because “they were not complete and potentially fraudulent.”
Meanwhile, visa statistics show that 16.5 percent of applications have been rejected this year. Compared to 2019, when the failure rate was only 9.6%, the increase is significant. At the same time, Germany and France turned out to be the most “greedy” for visas for Turkish citizens.