"This is Shameful. Shameful for Everyone"

The Head of the EU Delegation to Turkey, Thomas Hans Ossowski, stated:

"As a strategic partner and a very important NATO ally, the application of visas to Turkey is shameful. Turkey is the only candidate country without visa-free travel to the European Union."

He emphasized that visa-free travel is possible from countries like Kosovo, Ukraine, Georgia, and Venezuela:

"Even Kosovo, which is not an official candidate country, has this. How can it be possible that Ukrainians, who are in a state of war and have to leave their country, can travel to the EU visa-free, but Turks cannot? Georgia, with whom we currently have difficult relations, is visa-free; its ruling party is anti-European and pro-Russian. Even worse, Venezuela has visa-free access, as does Colombia, which still has significant drug problems."

Ossowski described the visa issue in Turkey and proposed a solution:

"Consulates are overwhelmed with Turkish visa applications. People have to wait for months, sometimes even a year, to get a visa appointment. This is not sustainable. And this is not acceptable in the kind of strategic relationship we want with Turkey. That's why we need to restart the visa liberalization process. We have now made a very honest offer to the Turkish government. Please, let’s resume negotiations. Turkey has fulfilled 66 of the 72 criteria. Now let's work on the remaining 6 criteria."

The Head of the EU Delegation to Turkey concluded with the following statement:

"How is it possible that, as a strategic partner and very important NATO ally, Turkey does not have visa-free travel? We need visa-free travel between the EU and Turkey."

Source: Hürriyet