Turkish FM wants visas abolished for Turkey as well

The reason why Turkey is left behind in this whole process (as if it doesn’t already know) is because it’s too big, it’s too backward, it’s too far away and above everything else, it’s too Muslim.

So basically, Turkey, Albania, BiH and our province of Kosovo have been excluded from visa free travel. Now what do these regions have in common? Serbians from BiH and Kosovo can get into the EU visa free but those remaining cannot?

Turkey also borders Syria, Iran and Iraq so although Europe is resisting now, there will be a huge influx of Muslims into the EU sooner or later.

Turkish citizens are simply NOT european citizens. So there should be visas, as well as all the other procedures that are needed in order to travel witthin the EU. Furthermore, if you consider the problems that turkish nationals and immigrants are causing to all over Europe wherever they are, EU is totally right for requiring visas for every turkish national. Probably they shouldn't let them in at all, from the first place. They have nothing to do with Europe after all.

It is unacceptable that certain Balkan countries that are in the starting phases of association and which have not begun negotiations have received Schengen privileges, and that Turkey, taking into consideration the level it has reached in EU negotiations, has not,” Davutoglu said
B92

The balkans are part of Europe,mr Davutoglu,Turkey is not.

If the EU doesn't agree a border which includes countries with common values and beliefs and accepts Turkey as a member, such a move will really be a catalyst for world government, where culture, belief and values are irrelevant.Then why not allowing Syria,Egypt and other countries join the club.

Davutoglu's only reason ,i think ,requesting free visas for Turks in EU is the chance to work anywhere in Europe. But average Europeans won't put up with more mass immigration. The issue is too electric, and Europeans are already far too worried about local jobs and the erosion of national and regional cultures.

Furthermore,the sheer numbes of Turks settling in EU will exacerbate the tensions between muslims in Europe and
the indigenous populations especially since Turkey has shifted more to Islam in the last few years.

The ideas of Sarkozi and Merkel of some sort of partnership with Turkey instead of full membership will be more beneficial to both parties.

your not technically European and i am sure the terrorists would just walk in Europe through turkey and the ones that live in turkey so i dont think yo will be allowed yet.

Hey Turks, you were the Ottoman Empire, not the Austro-Hungarian, remember? You are not Europeans, you are Middle-easterners. Countries like Turkey, Albania, K_Albania, want the benefits of the EU, but not meet the standards or mentality of the EU.

The EU would have to be insane to even consider this! Their track record for human rights is pathetic and and the shift towards an Islamic state should raise everyone's eyebrows.

Obviously, a lot of you people know how to read and write, but it seems to me that you fail to understand.

Zoran: A very common reason for a destination country to require a visa in addition to just a passport, is that the destination country does not trust the process used in the foreign country when passports are issued. The lack of trust can come from many sources: Widespread corruption allowing criminals to obtain fake passports. Lack of central control over who is actually a citizen of said country, making it possible for 3rd party foreigners to obtain a passport. Or it can be purely political with the destination country wanting to know exactly who and when citizens from a given country enter.

Obviously, they EU feels that Serbia, with its new biometric passports (whatever that is), has enough control of the process, that is it okay to let Serbian citizens visit EU without the extra paperwork. And equally obvious, the EU feel that the same controls are lacking in Kosovo, BiH, Syria, Iran and Iraq.

Leonidas: Visa free travel does not equal free work-permits. If I am not mistaken, citizens from all EU countries can travel to the US without a visa, but that does not mean that I am allowed to go to the US and work there.

Pavlos: I am an European, not a North American, yet I can go to the US without a visa. Furthermore, as I said to Zoran, a visa requirement is not about what problems people might cause in the destination country. It is about knowing (or not knowing) who they are in the first place.

Sean: You have a point there. The question is: What is the best way to fix that? I don't have a good answer.

Ron: As far as I know, most of the (luckily few) terrorists acts that has occurred in the EU, was done by so called home-grown terrorists, people that was born and raised the home country. Please tell me how a visa requirement will help preventing that?
--

Leonidas: Visa free travel does not equal free work-permits. If I am not mistaken, citizens from all EU countries can travel to the US without a visa, but that does not mean that I am allowed to go to the US and work there

Jan Andersen

Iam afraid visa free travel equals employment.There are thousands of illegal immigrants in Greece and millions in Europe.

I do recall reading recently there are more than 1.5 million illegal immigrants in UK alone.

Iam not against the idea of people seeking bor a better life for themselves and their families but it must be done in an orderly manner.

I am NOT the other Ron in this thread!

On topic: this won't happen. I sometimes speak to diplomats and such and off-record (!) they very often say that:

(1) Turkey will not join EU.
(2) Georgia and Ukraine will not join EU and/or NATO.

It is time the West is honest about this!

It's funny how aspiring countries to the EU need to dance through the necessary hoops in order to get rewarded now and again. Yet for some reason, this fascist state in Anatolia continues to think it somehow deserves to enter the EU without any improvements to human rights, civil liberties, or political freedoms.

How about a few small things to start? These are hardly even symbolic for a country as large as Turkey

1. Reopen the Greek Orthodox Theological School at Halki

2. Treatment of Greek, Armenian, Kurdish and other minorities that refuse to be assimilated as equal minorities?

I won't even get into a discussion of the Armenian Genocide or autonomy for the Kurdish regions since the above two would be enough to make the average Ottomaniac red with fury and paranoid enough to start another pogrom.

I am so disgusted by comments posted by Euro thrash, I don't even think writing a meaningful comment will make any sense. Significant portion of Europe is diseased with racism. Frankly I think Turkey is better off with this mentality.

Turkish citizens should be allowed to travel visa-free into the EU once Turkey meets the requirements. It is simply not acceptable to apply different standards to different countries based on what religion its people practice or on who its neighbors are. Let's not forget that Turkey has applied for EU membership forty years ago and has made considerable progress towards joining the EU. Even if the prospects of Turkey becoming an official member state are a long way off Turkish citizens should be allowed to travel to the EU visa free once Turkey fulfills all the requirements. From a local perspective, having thousands of Turks traveling to the EU through the Balkans would present a great business opportunity for local businesses and would strengthen the economic interactions between Turkey and the Balkans which would benefit both Turkey and the Balkan countries. The Ottoman empire ended more then a century ago and the situation both in Turkey and the Balkans today is completely different from what it was a century ago. Let us focus on the present and the future and not be handicapped by the past.

The date for TUrkish visa liberalisation is 2100, maybe!

your not technically European and i am sure the terrorists would just walk in Europe through turkey and the ones that live in turkey so i dont think yo will be allowed yet.

Turkish citizens are simply NOT european citizens. So there should be visas, as well as all the other procedures that are needed in order to travel witthin the EU. Furthermore, if you consider the problems that turkish nationals and immigrants are causing to all over Europe wherever they are, EU is totally right for requiring visas for every turkish national. Probably they shouldn't let them in at all, from the first place. They have nothing to do with Europe after all.

Obviously, a lot of you people know how to read and write, but it seems to me that you fail to understand.

Zoran: A very common reason for a destination country to require a visa in addition to just a passport, is that the destination country does not trust the process used in the foreign country when passports are issued. The lack of trust can come from many sources: Widespread corruption allowing criminals to obtain fake passports. Lack of central control over who is actually a citizen of said country, making it possible for 3rd party foreigners to obtain a passport. Or it can be purely political with the destination country wanting to know exactly who and when citizens from a given country enter.

Obviously, they EU feels that Serbia, with its new biometric passports (whatever that is), has enough control of the process, that is it okay to let Serbian citizens visit EU without the extra paperwork. And equally obvious, the EU feel that the same controls are lacking in Kosovo, BiH, Syria, Iran and Iraq.

Leonidas: Visa free travel does not equal free work-permits. If I am not mistaken, citizens from all EU countries can travel to the US without a visa, but that does not mean that I am allowed to go to the US and work there.

Pavlos: I am an European, not a North American, yet I can go to the US without a visa. Furthermore, as I said to Zoran, a visa requirement is not about what problems people might cause in the destination country. It is about knowing (or not knowing) who they are in the first place.

Sean: You have a point there. The question is: What is the best way to fix that? I don't have a good answer.

Ron: As far as I know, most of the (luckily few) terrorists acts that has occurred in the EU, was done by so called home-grown terrorists, people that was born and raised the home country. Please tell me how a visa requirement will help preventing that?
--

So basically, Turkey, Albania, BiH and our province of Kosovo have been excluded from visa free travel. Now what do these regions have in common? Serbians from BiH and Kosovo can get into the EU visa free but those remaining cannot?

Turkey also borders Syria, Iran and Iraq so although Europe is resisting now, there will be a huge influx of Muslims into the EU sooner or later.

It is unacceptable that certain Balkan countries that are in the starting phases of association and which have not begun negotiations have received Schengen privileges, and that Turkey, taking into consideration the level it has reached in EU negotiations, has not,” Davutoglu said
B92

The balkans are part of Europe,mr Davutoglu,Turkey is not.

If the EU doesn't agree a border which includes countries with common values and beliefs and accepts Turkey as a member, such a move will really be a catalyst for world government, where culture, belief and values are irrelevant.Then why not allowing Syria,Egypt and other countries join the club.

Davutoglu's only reason ,i think ,requesting free visas for Turks in EU is the chance to work anywhere in Europe. But average Europeans won't put up with more mass immigration. The issue is too electric, and Europeans are already far too worried about local jobs and the erosion of national and regional cultures.

Furthermore,the sheer numbes of Turks settling in EU will exacerbate the tensions between muslims in Europe and
the indigenous populations especially since Turkey has shifted more to Islam in the last few years.

The ideas of Sarkozi and Merkel of some sort of partnership with Turkey instead of full membership will be more beneficial to both parties.

The reason why Turkey is left behind in this whole process (as if it doesn’t already know) is because it’s too big, it’s too backward, it’s too far away and above everything else, it’s too Muslim.

The EU would have to be insane to even consider this! Their track record for human rights is pathetic and and the shift towards an Islamic state should raise everyone's eyebrows.

I am so disgusted by comments posted by Euro thrash, I don't even think writing a meaningful comment will make any sense. Significant portion of Europe is diseased with racism. Frankly I think Turkey is better off with this mentality.

Hey Turks, you were the Ottoman Empire, not the Austro-Hungarian, remember? You are not Europeans, you are Middle-easterners. Countries like Turkey, Albania, K_Albania, want the benefits of the EU, but not meet the standards or mentality of the EU.

It's funny how aspiring countries to the EU need to dance through the necessary hoops in order to get rewarded now and again. Yet for some reason, this fascist state in Anatolia continues to think it somehow deserves to enter the EU without any improvements to human rights, civil liberties, or political freedoms.

How about a few small things to start? These are hardly even symbolic for a country as large as Turkey

1. Reopen the Greek Orthodox Theological School at Halki

2. Treatment of Greek, Armenian, Kurdish and other minorities that refuse to be assimilated as equal minorities?

I won't even get into a discussion of the Armenian Genocide or autonomy for the Kurdish regions since the above two would be enough to make the average Ottomaniac red with fury and paranoid enough to start another pogrom.

Leonidas: Visa free travel does not equal free work-permits. If I am not mistaken, citizens from all EU countries can travel to the US without a visa, but that does not mean that I am allowed to go to the US and work there

Jan Andersen

Iam afraid visa free travel equals employment.There are thousands of illegal immigrants in Greece and millions in Europe.

I do recall reading recently there are more than 1.5 million illegal immigrants in UK alone.

Iam not against the idea of people seeking bor a better life for themselves and their families but it must be done in an orderly manner.

I am NOT the other Ron in this thread!

On topic: this won't happen. I sometimes speak to diplomats and such and off-record (!) they very often say that:

(1) Turkey will not join EU.
(2) Georgia and Ukraine will not join EU and/or NATO.

It is time the West is honest about this!

The date for TUrkish visa liberalisation is 2100, maybe!

Turkish citizens should be allowed to travel visa-free into the EU once Turkey meets the requirements. It is simply not acceptable to apply different standards to different countries based on what religion its people practice or on who its neighbors are. Let's not forget that Turkey has applied for EU membership forty years ago and has made considerable progress towards joining the EU. Even if the prospects of Turkey becoming an official member state are a long way off Turkish citizens should be allowed to travel to the EU visa free once Turkey fulfills all the requirements. From a local perspective, having thousands of Turks traveling to the EU through the Balkans would present a great business opportunity for local businesses and would strengthen the economic interactions between Turkey and the Balkans which would benefit both Turkey and the Balkan countries. The Ottoman empire ended more then a century ago and the situation both in Turkey and the Balkans today is completely different from what it was a century ago. Let us focus on the present and the future and not be handicapped by the past.