Turkey believes that The United States and several European countries intentionally slow down the granting of visas to Turkish citizens to make things difficult for the ruling AKPfrom President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ahead of the 2023 general election.
“Unfortunately, the United States and several Western countries, both members of the European Union and non-members, give our citizens appointments to apply for a visa with a delay of one year, or six, seven, eight months”, said the Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlüt Çavusoglu, this Tuesday in a broadcast of the Turkish channel Global Haber.
“The rate of (visa) refusals has also risen. This is intentional, planned. We consider it a step to make things difficult for the AKP government before the elections,” the minister said.
“Whether it’s due to lack of staff, or because of covid… I no longer believe in these excuses. This would have a solution, and we told them: they could hire more local staff, and in any case they all work with (subcontracted) visa companies”, stressed the minister.
Çavusoglu announced that in early September, after the summer holidays are over, officials from his ministry would call the ambassadors of these Western countries to formally warn them of the problem.
“If after this it is not resolved, we will proceed to take action. It will be a restriction of services, in retaliation,” said the minister, without offering further details.
He added that he had already warned German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock of the problem during her recent visit to Istanbul in July, and also his American counterpart, Anthony Blinken, with whom he spoke by phone earlier this month.
One of the great promises of the AKP, the Islamist party that has ruled Turkey since 2001, was to allow Turkish citizens to travel to the European Union without a visa, but although there was an agreement in principle with Brussels in 2016, Ankara never implemented the changes. legal provisions of the agreement. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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