Last week, TUROB – Turkish Hotels Association announced that Turkey will reintroduce visa requirements for 89 countries that are currently visa free countries due to Turkey’s full alignment of our visa policy with the European Union.
According to the press release, from June 2016 Turkey will reintroduce visa requirement for countries that are seen as high potential for illegal immigrants as well as some other countries that are important source markets for Turkish tourism. Albania, Azerbaijan, Belize, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Morocco, Ecuador, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Colombia, Lebanon, Macedonia, Maldives, Serbia, Ukraine, Jordan, Russia, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Peru, Tajikistan, Tunisia and Turkmenistan are some of those countries that are mentioned in the press release.
However, on January 9, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry released following press release saying that the news is not true. Ministry said:
“The claims in the press that Turkey will reintroduce visa requirements for 89 countries as of 1 June are totally unfounded.
The negotiations with the EU to ensure Schengen visa exemption for our citizens are ongoing.
Full alignment of our visa policy with the EU vis-a-vis third countries is an obligation we must fulfil following Turkey’s full membership to the EU.
Therefore, at this stage the news about Turkey’s plans on the introduction of visa requirements as of 1 June vis-a-vis countries required to obtain EU visa do not reflect the reality.”
