During a press conference organised by IKV on 7 July 2015 in Istanbul, Prof. Rolf Gutmann who was the lawyer of Soysal during the Soysal Case and Member of the Yeditepe University Faculty Law Dr. Murat Uğur Aksoy gave detailed information concerning the latest developments regarding the visa-free journey to Europe of Turkish citizens.

Prof. Gutmann reminded that the Soysal Case had given the opportunity to open the doors to the free movement of Turkish citizens in Europe within the framework of trade relations, whereas the Demirkan Case had closed these doors. Prof. Gutmann further stated that the free movement of goods and of people could not be taken into consideration independently from each other. In this respect, he stressed that in contrast to the latest decisions taken by the European Court of Justice, this issue should be tackled within new perspectives. In that context, Prof. Gutmann reffered to a trade agreement which had been signed between Turkey and Germany in 1930 and which enables tradesmen to visit either party freely and to conclude business deals.  

The 1930 Turkey-Germany Trade Agreement and Visa-Free Travel

According to Prof. Gutmann, Germany signed in 1930 a trade agreement with Turkey with the aim of breaking its trade isolation resulting from the Lausanne Treaty. Article 8 of the Agreement recognizes the freedom of movement of tradesmen as well as the freedom to buy or sell goods. Prof. Gutmann further argued that Article 8 of this bilateral agreement is binding. According to the agreement, tradesmen are required to obtain a certificate of proficiency from the authorities of either party before trading. Following the Second World War, Germany approved provisionally the trade agreement which was updated in 1952.

Furthermore, Prof. Gutmann indicated that the principles of the EU lies on the loyalty shown to the agreements and thus underlined that the 1930 dated Turkey-Germany Trade Agreement is considered among the agreements protected by the EU. Moreover, Prof. Gutmann stressed that it is up to Turkey to use this agreement in its arguments regarding the visa issue.

He called upon the Turkish business community to apply for a certificate of proficiency to the relevant authorities by organising the D Annex documents of the framework of the agreement.  When asked why such an agreement had not been brought to the attention beforehand in Turkey-EU relations, Prof. Gutmann stressed the following: “This agreement is a bilateral agreement which had been signed between Turkey and Germany, it is not an agreement deriving from EU law”.