The Refugee Crisis Escalates:  Is Visa the New Card for the EU?

The refugee crisis escalates between Turkey and the EU. The EU which is dealing with the biggest refugee crisis is now playing the visa card after granting a financial assistance amounting to 1 billion euros to Turkey.

As it is known, refugee crisis has been the main topic discussed during President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s official visit to Brussels on 4-5 October 2015. During his visit, while EU officials presented the Draft Action Plan providing assistance of 1 billion euros to Turkey to tackle the refugee crisis, Turkey proposed to establish a working group that will discuss how to handle the refugee. While the negotiations within the working group are ongoing, along with the financial assistance, it can be observed that the visa facilitation for Turkish citizens is also on the agenda.

IKV: “At current point, we are now facing a hasty, short-term and unpredictable approach”

As IKV which has been working for a long period of time on the unfair visa practices applied towards Turkish citizens, we observe that the current situation is the result of a hasty, short-term and unpredictable approach.

Considering that the imposition of visa by EU Member States since 1980s became a torture for the Turkish citizens, we do not approve that the EU now plays the visa card.

One must not forget that;

The legal fight in the visa path has a long history as the visa victimization.  During that time, Turkish citizens obtained important legal gains from the EU’s highest judicial organs. Unfortunately, our legal gains were interrupted by the decision taken by a court in 2013. Furthermore, Turkey, which negotiates the Readmission Agreement with the EU for almost 10 years, signed the agreement with the EU only in December 2013. Within the agreement, both parties opened a new chapter to overcome these unfair treatments.

The first bend in this new path started last year; the evaluation report regarding the Visa Liberalisation Dialogue which was launched in parallel to the Turkey-EU Readmission Agreement was published with positive results that exceeded even our expectations. However, it has also become apparent over the past year that fewer steps have been taken in Turkey towards the fulfilment of the Visa Liberalisation Dialogue.

Nonetheless, the process is being pursued and should continue as such within the framework of the pre-established criteria and procedures.

IKV: “Some are trying to "offer a payoff" to Turkey”

We now observe with regret that the other party is trying to "offer a payoff" to Turkey. Europe which is confronted by an unprecedented refugee flow, is trying to use the visa card as means of “making a gesture” as a consequence of the fact that Turkey found the EU’s proposal for financial assistance insufficient.

At this juncture, as a civil society organisation which has gained the status of “Expert” over the past 50 years in Turkey-EU relations, we would like to underline the following points:

• The rules and the framework of the visa liberalisation process towards Turkish citizens have already been determined and the parties have expressed reciprocal commitments in that respect.  Although it may seem tempting, the fact that there is attempt to introduce a new condition within this framework would only bring the process to a standstill. Furthermore, considering the fact that the visa liberalisation dialogue which was launched in 2013 with the aim of lifting visa obligation required form our citizens, the new proposal for visa facilitation at this juncture would be contrary to the spirit of the process and to the ultimate objective.

• Whilst visa liberalisation is still being negotiated with Turkey, the details of proposed visa facilitation are still unknown and the proposed visa facilitation is far from bringing a credible solution to the visa concerns of our citizens in the medium term. Presumably, the EU will propose the visa facilitation for certain specific categories; but such facilitations have already been established for years and this will only led to Turkey’s fierce opposition in that respect.

• Turkey has pledged its commitments to the EU in many areas such as integrated border management, the readmission mechanism, migration management when launching the visa liberalization dialogue in 2013. The fact that Turkey is Europe’s 5^th country in terms of  length of its land and sea borders underline the importance for it to adequately protect its borders and besides it is also necessary for its own internal security. Naturally, it is of utmost importance that Turkey sticks to the agreement it has signed in 2013 and thus takes without delay the necessary steps in that respect.

• This refugee crisis shows clearly that it is impossible for Europe to overcome the challenges it is being confronted “without the help of Turkey”. In that context, the parties should be reminded urgently about the negotiations process and be insistent in that matter.

• Finally; the refugee crisis is not only our country or Europe’s own problem but constitutes a great humanitarian problem and no party should try to use this as a means to change the outcome of ongoing negotiations in other various areas.

Yours Sincerely,

Economic Development Foundation