The sorry state of our passport

A diplomat friend of mine from the old days once said, “One of the most important parameters that shows the power of a country is its passport.” How true! Let’s not beat around the bush: there is no longer any advantage to carrying a Republic of Turkey passport.

Moreover, it causes you to be treated like a “potential criminal” at border crossings, to be humiliated, and to be pushed around. The political Islamist government in Turkey has almost reduced the value of our passport to zero.

I won't even get into the visa issue.

While European Union countries are preparing to provide visa exemptions to Saudi Arabia, their consulates in Turkey won't even give my fellow citizens an appointment. We are forced to endure all kinds of insulting treatment just to get a three-day, single-entry visa at their doors.

In the 'Old Turkey' that political Islamists love to harp on about, our passports were many times more valuable than they are now. We still had to get visas for European countries, but we didn't waste our lives in visa queues, nor were we interrogated at border crossings.

From where to where in 20-25 years...

What I really want to talk about are countries that, on paper, do not require visas from Turkey, such as Japan, Korea, or Thailand, or countries that offer “visa on arrival” or “electronic visas,” such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia.

We are used to it by now; Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro make life difficult for Turkish citizens at their border crossings. Perhaps this is understandable due to the European Union's fear of refugees, but what could be the problem for countries in the Far East and Southeast Asia?

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in Turkey toward Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Korea, and Japan. A significant Turkish community has already emerged in Thailand. Their social media presence is also quite active.

Those who are fed up with the government, those fleeing the economic crisis, those who think they can live more comfortably on a pension; those who are planning to settle down by finding a spouse, starting a business, or saying the climate and water are nice, or those who cannot go to European countries but do not want to be fleeced by greedy tourism merchants in Turkey are turning their routes to Southeast Asia or the Far East.

But coming to these places and holding on here is not that easy.

You said;

“Since Europe won't take us, then I'll just hop over to Vietnam or the Philippines! I'll stop by Korea for a while to recite a Fatiha for the souls of our martyrs! And I'll see Japan during cherry blossom season.”

Even the dream is beautiful.

But you cannot just waltz into these countries with the passport you carry, relying on visa exemptions or electronic visa convenience.

For example, Vietnam has an electronic visa application. If an applicant who enters all their information online is from Europe, America, or another Asian country like Japan, Korea, or China, their electronic visa request is answered within 24 hours at the latest, and the document is sent to their email account.

But as a citizen of the Republic of Turkey, when you click on the relevant link and reach the question “Which country are you applying from?” on the page that opens, you face the bitter truth. If you check the “Turkey” box, a message appears in red text: “Due to the country from which you are applying, the response time for your visa may take 7-10 days.”

Then you are asked for a lot of necessary and unnecessary information. For example, you have to enter the address of the hotel or tour company where you will stay, accurate to the last dot and comma. If one thing is missing, your application is not approved.

There is also the return ticket problem.

Let's say you are going to fly from Indonesia to the Philippines. But they won't let you check in without the PNR, or “Passenger Name Record,” of your return ticket from the Philippines.

The system of the airline that will take you does not approve the transaction without the PNR of your return ticket.

Some airlines flying from Vietnam to Thailand follow the same path. In other words, they do not allow you to board the plane to that country while you are still in Vietnam without a ticket out of Thailand.

In a sense, they have moved the border police's “return ticket” interrogation forward.

Let's not be surprised if they start asking for the PIN code of hotel reservations soon.

Although there are similar practices in Turkey, this is mostly at the initiative of airline employees.

It seems that it is now slowly becoming a systemic practice. In all likelihood, it will be implemented all over the world in the not-too-distant future. That is, we will see that those who have not bought a return ticket will no longer be able to board the plane they are going to take.

Thailand had been treating Turkish citizens with relatively more tolerance until now. But that is changing now. 

Because Turks entering the country do not want to leave. There is a serious problem at hand.

It is not just Thailand; Japan and Korea are no longer letting Turkish citizens in easily either. Border police seriously interrogate those they don't like the look of, for example, sending those without hotel reservations or return tickets back without mercy.

Because they are all suffering from Turkish citizens who stay illegally.

Of course, they are right in their own way. 

But let us end our article by saying that regardless of the reason, no citizen of the Republic of Turkey deserves to have such a devalued passport in the world.