A terrifying passport scandal!

In our article last week, we tried to explain how Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has demolished foreign policy—including issues closely concerning Turkey's survival—by exploiting it to consolidate his own base at home.

While expressing that the country's international reputation is gradually disappearing, we noted that our passport has almost no value left, and that EU member countries are not only refusing to grant visas to Turkish citizens but are not even willing to provide appointments for visa applications.

Europeans do not want Turks to come on tourist, student, or business visas and then remain in their countries as asylum seekers.

The application system they have outsourced to private companies has turned into a form of psychological torture.

They are not really interested in who is requesting a visa or why.

About a year ago, Korkmaz Can Sağlam, the pianist grandson of one of Turkey's most qualified diplomats, the late former Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Korkmaz Haktanır, who passed away in 2019, could not attend a competition held in Portugal because the country did not grant him a visa.

Both Turkey's Embassy in Lisbon and Portugal's Embassy in Ankara intervened for Korkmaz Can Sağlam to receive a visa, but his application was rejected.

Yet, it is known to all art lovers that Korkmaz Can Sağlam is a pianist with international awards.

In other words, he is not a young person waiting at the gates of European countries to become an asylum seeker.

THE PICTURE IS TRULY TROUBLING!

As increasingly intense migration movements shake the old continent to its foundations, how much justification is there for the EU's rigid stance on not granting visas to Turks?

In fact, a deep foreign policy crisis lies in the background of the problem.

For this reason, being a citizen of the Republic of Turkey has become a serious disadvantage in today's world.

It is crystal clear that Turkey being on the main transit route of the modern migration of peoples—which has become more visible in the last 20 years—and the government's cunning use of this as a lever in foreign policy, combined with the multiplier effect of the country's worsening social and economic conditions, have brought about a series of problems that are almost impossible to solve.

The young people who should be our hope and our future want to pack their bags and leave this country.

While Europe, especially Germany, sifts through those who want to come with a fine-tooth comb to take the most qualified labor force, those who prefer to stay in Turkey and say, "Let me save up a few pennies, travel and see Europe a bit, then return to my country and get back to my work," are treated as potential asylum seekers at consulate doors.

In other words, they cannot even go to Europe as tourists.

Aside from those fleeing the increasingly difficult living conditions in the country, Afghans, Pakistanis, Syrians, and even those of African origin who have come to Turkey one way or another are looking to get into Europe with a Republic of Turkey passport in their pockets.

This is exactly where the trouble begins.

While we keep wondering, "How did these people become Turkish citizens and get passports in one fell swoop?" it was recently revealed that a scandalous development occurred on the Serbia-Hungary border that closely concerns Turkey.

Let us start explaining without further ado.

Serbian Interior Minister Bratislav Gašić, who is also his country's former intelligence chief, recently applied to Turkey's Embassy in Belgrade and conveyed that he wanted to hold a meeting on an important matter.

An appointment date and time were quickly set.

Meeting with Belgrade Ambassador Hami Aksoy, Bratislav Gašić requested the establishment of a joint task force between Serbia and Turkey to prevent human trafficking.

Bratislav Gašić listed the reasons for this request in detail.

He stated that human traffickers of Afghan nationality are operating in the city of Subotica on the Serbia-Hungary border and are smuggling people into Europe from there, and then explained that some of them were captured by the Serbian police with automatic weapons.

He presented the developments in that region as an argument and, in diplomatic language, implied, "You are the source of the problem."

Because a significant majority of the members of the Afghan-origin migrant smuggling network captured by the Serbian police are found to have Republic of Turkey passports in their pockets.

Bratislav Gašić emphasized that around 300 people caught with Republic of Turkey passports in operations carried out in the last 7 days have been deported, and in addition, around 500 Turkish citizens are waiting in a repatriation center.

He also described small-scale armed clashes between the migrant smuggling gang and the Serbian police.

What Bratislav Gašić said is not limited to these.

He revealed much more striking details about the matter during the meeting.

The Serbian police seized a large number of Republic of Turkey passports issued to different names, other than those found on the members of the smuggling network during the operations.

These are the passports left behind with the smugglers by those who came from Turkey and wanted to escape to European countries, so that they would not be deported from the countries they went to.

One detail did not escape the Serbian police's notice.

As a result of a brief examination, it was understood that the passports found on this group had been issued in September-October 2023.

Clearly, there is an organized activity! It seems someone has worked specifically for those who will escape to Europe via Serbia and ensured that passports were issued.

Furthermore, the Serbian police determined that the number of Republic of Turkey citizens who came to Subotica to cross into EU member countries in the last three months is over 10 thousand.

Serbian Interior Minister Gašić, in essence, told the Turkish Ambassador, "The route is already you, my friend; the armed smugglers here are Afghans with Turkish passports. Your citizens are also trying to escape from here. We have seized so many passports. We have responsibilities toward the EU; let's establish a task force together," or at least implied as much.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs already knows that the EU is pressuring Balkan countries to ensure border security due to legal and illegal migrant groups coming from Iran, Afghanistan, and Iraq via Turkey, using similar arguments.

Moreover, this includes EU members Bulgaria and Greece.

In the end, Ambassador Hami Aksoy sent the dialogue he had with the Serbian Interior Minister and the minister's request from Turkey to the center, i.e., the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, via a coded message.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the relevant authorities about the matter, primarily the Ministry of Interior, with a letter and requested an opinion on whether such a task force should be established or not, and if so, what its scope should be.

It has not yet become clear whether Turkey has provided a response, and if it has, whether this task force will be established or how it will be done if it is.

But let us underline once again with a thick pen how important this issue is. The fact that Republic of Turkey passports were found on Afghan-origin human traffickers in Serbia, and that the passports left behind by the fugitives were issued within the last two months, naturally brings many question marks with it.

Those who are somewhat interested in current developments know very well that human trafficking constitutes an important pillar of the blackmail policy that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been conducting against European countries, especially Germany, through illegal migrants.

The government openly threatens, "Don't you dare raise an eyebrow at me, or I will open the gates to all asylum seekers and illegal migrants," while at the same time turning a blind eye to the activities of human traffickers, sending the message that it can destabilize Europe through migrants whenever it wants.

While the picture is there in all its nakedness, it is difficult to say for now whether Turkey will say "yes" to the establishment of a joint task force as requested by the Serbian Interior Minister.

If the authorized bodies give approval, units fighting against terrorism and organized crime must also be included in the joint task force for results to be achieved.

As we conclude the sentence, we can say that this scandal in Serbia is the tip of the iceberg.

As long as Turkey does not get out of the quagmire it has fallen into, does not stop trying to conduct foreign policy with dirty games plotted in dark circles, and in short, as long as it does not return to the founding settings of the republic based on rationality, science, peace, and full independence in diplomacy as in almost every other field, this country will continue to be an open-air prison for all of us, we say, and put a period to our article.