After Moldova, now Montenegro

Traveling without a visa is the greatest desire for all of us.

We do not want to wait in visa queues to visit a country.

We do not want to pay thousands of dollars to obtain visas for our families.

And yet, when we go to countries we can visit without a visa and with just an ID card, we cause trouble and end up losing this right as well.

We experienced the first example of this 2 years ago in Moldova.

Moldova was accepting Turkish citizens with their Turkish ID cards.

Turkish citizens had been able to travel to Moldova with their ID cards since February 19, 2019.

Travel to Moldova with an ID card lasted only 4 years.

This situation had been causing problems in Moldova for a long time.

Turkish people, putting their ID card in their pocket and 500 dollars in their wallet, had started flocking to Moldova.

Turks were entering the country with fake invitations and fake hotel reservations.

After entering the country, they would group up and rent houses or spend their nights in strip clubs.

Many of our citizens, who did not even have jobs in our country, were causing disturbances on the streets in Moldova and starting fights everywhere they went. There are records of them even attempting to beat up police officers.

This situation began to damage the reputation of Turkish businesspeople who successfully represent our country abroad.

Because the inappropriate behavior of these citizens caused Turkish businesspeople to be kept waiting for hours at customs gates and to be subjected to inappropriate treatment.

Many businesspeople were deported every day at border gates without even being able to enter Moldova or pass through passport control.

Hundreds of businesspeople were deported from Moldova. Just because of these poorly-behaved Turkish tourists.

Moldova has now taken very strict measures against Turks at border crossings.

Now, let alone asking for a Turkish ID card, they immediately check whether every arriving Turkish citizen has a Schengen visa in their passport.

Even at the Turkish Airlines (THY) counter, they ask Turkish citizens traveling to Moldova whether they have a Schengen visa. If they don't, they inform them in advance that they will face problems at passport control.

Moldova is preparing for the European Union at full speed. That is why it is controlling its borders in the best possible way. It does not allow anyone to pass from Moldova to European countries through illegal routes.

I wrote about this back then.

A Turkish citizen traveling to another country with an ID card instead of a passport damages our country's reputation.

A passport is a person's reputation upon entering a country.

Why am I writing this? Because traveling with an ID card ruined our relations with Moldova.

There is visa-free travel in many parts of the world, but there is no such thing as passport-free travel.

A passport is a person's history. The person at passport control sees the traveler's travel history there. You cannot access this information when traveling with an ID card.

In short, a passport is that person's reputation.

Russia is at the top of the list of countries where we apply ID-card travel.

Travel with an ID card first began between Turkey and Russia in 2012. Russians were granted permission to enter our country with an ID card.

The reason for this was that the procedure for obtaining a passport in Russia took a very long time. Additionally, it was desired that Russian tourists could quickly take advantage of sudden price changes and campaigns made by tourism professionals in holiday regions. The goal was to bring customers without passports to vacation quickly.

The first travel with an ID card started with Russia. Following this, Russian President Vladimir Putin also lifted the visa requirement for us.

But Russia never granted us permission to travel with an ID card.

Currently, the countries where Turkish people can travel with an ID card are: the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Moldova.

To avoid having problems with other countries, it would be beneficial for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey to take precautions regarding the ID-card travel practice as soon as possible.

We also experience problems from time to time with countries where we have visa-free travel, even without ID-card travel.

We experienced the latest example of this in Montenegro.

A knife attack involving Turkish citizens took place in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro.

A Montenegrin citizen was stabbed by 2 Turks living in the country.

More than 40 Turkish citizens were detained in connection with the incident.

Montenegrins took to the streets and chanted 'Death to the Turks' slogans.

Following the incident, Montenegro canceled the visa-free entry right for Turkey.

According to official data, approximately 13 thousand Turkish citizens live in Montenegro, which has a population of 630 thousand.

The cancellation of visa-free travel to Montenegro also hit Turkish tourism companies.

After the Montenegrin government introduced a temporary visa requirement for Turkish citizens entering the country, cancellations followed one after another at tour companies.

The route has turned to visa-free Balkan tours.

Yes, at the top of the list of places where Turks can travel without a visa are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, Mostar, Dubrovnik, Split, Zagreb, Skopje, Ohrid, Bitola, Prizren, and Belgrade.

The era of traveling with an ID card is ending, it will end.

Get your passports now before they get a price hike at the beginning of the year.

Let us think not only of ourselves but also of our country's reputation, not just in places we go without a visa, but also in places where we go with a visa.