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Turkey is one of the EU’s most important gatekeepers to illegal migration. But a row over visas is threatening the adoption of an agreement that Brussels sees as key to controlling the growing problem of illegal migration through Turkey.

Frontex Police officers stay near the border with Turkey as they are deployed to help Greek border police control crossing of illegal immigrants to Greece and Europe near Nea Vyssa, northeastern Greece

According to the EU as many as 80,000 migrants are believed to have entered Greece from Turkey illegally. And that is why Brussels is pressing Ankara to agree to accept back people who’ve entered the EU illegally.

But Ankara says it will only agree to the so-called re-admission agreement if the EU eases visa requirements on its citizens.

“They might be two different issues, but for us they are connected,” said Selim Yenel, deputy undersecretary for Bilateral Affairs and Public Diplomacy of the Turkish foreign ministry.  “Unfortunately the EU must come to their senses. They have not done so nothing is happening on the visa question and they want us to sign the re-admission agreement. Well sorry that is not going to happen.”

Early Thursday, the Turkish government renewed its call for the European Union to remove visa requirements.

At a meeting in Ankara with the EU’s new commissioner for enlargement, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu pressed the issue pointing out that the EU had waived visa requirements for three non-members – Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro – in December.

More than 45,000 migrants entered Greece illegally from Turkey last year, putting available facilities under severe strain, according to the Greek police. Greece also faces the possibility of being hit by a wave of migrants from Libya and other countries in the region. One Greek minister warned that the number could be as many as 300,000.

But diplomatic correspondent Semih Idiz says unless the EU eases its visas controls Ankara is in no mood to compromise.

“Turks are confronted with visas from Europe even though they are many businessmen who do business with Europe. There are thousands of students who go to Europe and Turkey is being treated as a third world country which has nothing but potential illegal immigrants,” Idiz said. “For the government , the state and the population this is a demeaning situation.”

But joint head of the European Green Party, Daniel Cohn Bendit, says Ankara has to realize what its asking for.

“Opening a free travel is an immense opening. Turkey is a big country,” he said. “This is a debate I have had for 10 years with the Turks.”

Turkey has been a candidate to join the 27-nation union since 1999 and accession talks began in earnest in 2005. But, observers warn that Turkey’s tough stance on the re-admission agreement will do little to enhance Turkey’s reputation in Brussels.  The Turkish government insists protecting EU borders from illegal migration is just one of many reasons it has much to lose if  its EU bid fails.  As a senior Turkish foreign ministry official put it, Brussels has to understand it can’t have its cake and eat it, too.

Source: VOA

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Italy and Sweden expressed support on Turkish nationals’ visa-free travel to European states, TRT English reported.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini aid they will do everything to change this unacceptable attitude, while his Swedish counterpart Carl Bildt said if Europe shuts its doors to new members, it will be preventing many possibilities in the future.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said Turkey will continue to be persistent on visa exemption for Turkish citizens.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu held separate meetings with Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bild and Italian Foreign minister Franco Frattini in İstanbul to discuss the situation in Libya and Turkey-European Union relations.

The three ministers then met at the lunch, after which they held a news conference. Visa-exemption for Turkish nationals was taken up in detail.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said “We will continue our persistence on the issue. Principally, Turkey doesn’t expect an attitude different from the one shown to any other country. We ask for the same standards which were applied to other countries. We expect this understanding from the European Union as a whole. As we hope, with the help of our friends in the Union, there won’t be any more obstructions in Turkey-EU relations.”

Guest Ministers also expressed uneasiness over the same issue.

Italia’s top diplomat Franco Frattini said “I am disappointed over the double standard applied by European authorities. We see that Europe begins to act unwillingly when it is Turkey’s tun on the cisa exemption. We will make our best to prevent this unacceptable attitude.”

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said Europe will be closing its doors to future possibilities if it closes its doors to new members.

On creating a no-fly zone over Libya, the ministers agreed that Libyan people should be listened to first and imposing solutions should be avoided.

Source: Trend

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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that visa procedures would be lifted with Malaysia.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak (L) and his Turkish counterpart Erdogan pose after addressing the media in Ankara (Reuters)

Prime Minister Erdogan appeared at a joint news conference after meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Mohamed Najib bin Abdul Razak and said that they agreed to lift visa procedures between the two countries.

“We are also planning to launch direct flights between Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen airport and Kuala Lumpur,” he said.

Erdogan said that Abdul Razak was the first Malaysian prime minister paying a state visit to Turkey in 28 years.

“We will sign a free trade agreement between Turkey and Malaysia this year. Such an agreement will add momentum to our economic and commercial relations. Currently, our trade volume is about 1.2 billion USD. We can increase it up to 5 billion USD. We are going to attend Turkey-Malaysia Business Forum in Istanbul tomorrow. We will tell our businessmen that we are ready to extend full support to mutual investments. Our businessmen can also work together in the third countries,” he said.

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdul Razak, on his part, said that he invited Prime Minister Erdogan to Malaysia by the end of 2011 to sign strategic cooperation agreement and free trade agreement.

“These two agreements will mark beginning of a new era in Turkey-Malaysia relations. There will be no more visa procedures between our countries,” he said.

He added that Turkey and Malaysia could develop an exciting cooperation in oil and natural gas.

Following the press conference, Prime Minister Erdogan hosted a banquet in honor of his Malaysian counterpart.

Source: World Bulletin

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It almost went unnoticed. Last week, after years of negotiating, the European Union and Turkey finally agreed on a so-called readmission agreement. It means that Turkey has agreed to take back illegal migrants who are arrested in EU countries and who travelled to the EU via Turkey.

Until recently, the problem was that Turkey was willing to accept responsibility for Turkish citizens who entered the EU without permission but was very reluctant to do so for thousands of migrants from Iraq, Central Asia and Africa who use Turkey as a relatively easy gateway to Europe. It seems that Turkey got the guarantee that the EU would help, also financially, in coping with all these migrants who are sent back and have to be taken care of, in one way or another. The European commissioner responsible for negotiations with Turkey on this agreement, Swedish Liberal Cecilia Malmström, welcomed the result and announced that the text will be brought for formal approval by EU member states to the next Justice and Home Affairs Council on Feb. 24.

A readmission agreement with the EU is a condition that all candidate countries have to fulfill before they can make progress on lifting visa restrictions. In the past, with the countries of the Western Balkans, for example, after signing such an agreement, the EU started a process of so-called visa liberalization. That means that, in the end, citizens of the countries involved can travel to the EU for touristic or other short-term purposes without having to apply for a visa.

For Turks this sounds like heaven. They are now faced with complicated and humiliating demands from EU member states when they apply for permission to travel to these countries. Despite all the rhetoric about improving economic relations between the EU and Turkey, Turkish businessmen are still subjected to cumbersome procedures that make it simply impossible to act and react quickly and efficiently. The same applies for students who discover that all the nice exchange programs are seriously hampered by the same obstacles to free travel. Regular Turkish citizens are even more worse off. Will all these problems come to an end after the readmission agreement is concluded?

That is not yet clear. Commissioner Malmström, a strong defender of Turkish accession to the EU, is planning to ask EU member states on Feb. 24 not only to welcome the agreement but to also allow her to start a visa dialogue with Turkey, with the aim of eventual visa liberalization. This mandate will probably include all kinds of safeguard clauses that would allow the EU to reintroduce visa restrictions when there is a sudden strong increase in Turkish migrants. Still, despite all these additional guarantees, countries such as Germany and the Netherlands will find it difficult to start a process that

would eventually lead to the abolishment of visas for Turks. We will have to follow the meeting on Feb. 24 closely to see whether the European Commission will be successful in convincing the usual suspects. The Turkish government will interpret the conclusions of that meeting very carefully anyway because they have already announced that Turkey will only sign and ratify the readmission agreement when the EU agrees on the final goal of visa-free travel.

The most likely outcome will be that EU member states will agree on starting a slow process of gradual relaxation of the visa regime for Turkish citizens. The first step in that long process could be so-called visa facilitation. This means that first specific groups, such as businessmen, students and academics, would be exempted from acquiring a visa. The EU has some experience in that field because this is how the Balkan countries were treated in the recent past as well. Only when that goes well would further steps be made.

I can understand that many Turks are cynical about the EU’s double standards and pessimistic about substantial improvements in the short run. Still, I believe that last week a significant and symbolic point was reached that will make it more difficult for the EU to keep the present discriminating rules in place.

Collected by Vietnam visum

Turkish and Russian officials signed on Tuesday a readmission agreement, a step that brings the two countries closer to introducing a visa-free travel regime for their nationals.

The agreement on readmission of illegal immigrants was signed in Moscow, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. The agreement will enter into force simultaneously with a visa exemption agreement that was signed in May 2010.

Thanks to this agreement, the fight against illegal migration was also included in the wide activities of cooperation between Turkey and Russia, the statement said. Officials expect illegal migration could become a bigger problem when Turks and Russians are allowed to travel without having to obtain a visa. Turkey, which seeks a visa exemption for its nationals in their travels to European Union countries, is still negotiating a deal with Brussels for the readmission of illegal migrants who transit Turkish territory to reach EU destinations.

Economic and political ties between Turkey and Russia have grown dramatically in the past years. Tourism is also booming as about 3 million Russians flock to Turkey every year, particularly to tourism destinations along the Mediterranean coast. The Foreign Ministry said the visa-free regime would help the two countries further improve their cultural and social ties as well as develop economic and commercial relations by boosting contacts between Turkish and Russian businessmen.

The decision to sign a readmission agreement, seen as the final obstacle before a visa-free regime, was made during a visit to Russia by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan last year.

The agreement was signed by Şakir Fakıllı, the director-general for consular affairs at the Foreign Ministry, and Russian Deputy Director of the Federal Migration Service Nikolay Smorodin in Moscow on Tuesday. Fakıllı said he hoped the ratification processes of both the visa exemption and readmission agreements would be completed in a short time so that visa-free travel could begin as soon as possible. The readmission agreement obliges the parties that signed the agreement to readmit persons who enter the other country illegally. Turkish Foreign Ministry officials said visa-free travel between Turkey and Russia could begin as soon as April.

Collected by Vietnam visa online.