Turks have become so accustomed to living under anomalies for the past decade that anything normal is welcome with great joy.
Take the visa issue.
I know it from personal experience. When Schengen entered into force, the so-called cascade system was also introduced for Turkish citizens. Also initially, there was no problem with what is now called “visa shopping.” You could obtain your visa from country A and make your first entry into country B without any problems.
Towards the end of the 2010s, when Europe was struggling with a financial crisis, the government in Turkey was reaping the benefits of following the IMF recipe, as well as the start of accession talks with the EU, leading to record growth levels. That’s when the European Commission started to envisage lifting the visa regime for Turkish citizens. But as Turkey could not fulfill all of the required criteria, the issue remained dormant until the 2016 migration deal. And then visa liberalization dropped totally off the agenda following the 2016 coup attempt.
As political oppression mounted and the economic crisis started to deepen, the practical facilities provided by the Schengen regime evaporated for Turkish citizens. When travel stopped due to COVID-19, Turkish citizens had to face additional waiting time to get a visa.
RETURN OF THE CASCADE - WITHOUT APPOINTMENTS
The departing EU representative in Ankara, Thomas Ossowski, announced last month that the cascade system will be implemented for Turkish citizens. This return to the old - and normal - system was welcomed as positive news. Yet getting an appointment to apply for a visa remains a major problem.
European consular services are blaming the agencies that “somehow” get hold of the appointments the moment they become available. “People are ready to pay extra amounts just to get an appointment; it starts from $500 and can go up to $3000,” said a source familiar with the system.
Software systems could be developed to prevent this problem. It is a big question mark why the visa and passport administration outsourcing companies are not developing and introducing the systems that would eliminate this problem. Meanwhile, Denmark has addressed the challenge by instructing the outsourcing company to respond within two days, giving a set date for appointment.
COMPANIES UNDER SPOTLIGHT
The visa problems are putting the outsourcing companies under the spotlight. Foreign companies dominate the sector.
VFS Global, the visa and passport administration outsourcing company for governments and diplomatic missions founded by Indian citizen Zubin Karkaria, is the dominant company in Turkey, where it collaborates with a Turkish company, Gateway. Since the early 2010s, the two have been working for nearly 30 countries, the majority being Western countries.
In 2021, Blackstone bought VFS. There are rumors that Blackstone no longer wants to work with Turkish subcontractor companies.
When the Indian company BLS bought the Turkish company İDATA, Turkey’s competition board approved the purchase, prompting Gateway to file a case against it.
If Gateway loses the case and also parts ways with Blackstone, the presence of Turkish companies in the sector will be minimal, since the portfolios of the remaining handful of companies - such as Kosmos (working for Greece) and As Vize (working for Hungary, Portugal and Slovenia) - are very limited.
TURKISH CITIZENS’ DATA
The current Turkish government brags about “national and local solutions.” Only recently, the son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan created a new social media platform, NEXT Sosyal. While promoting the platform, Selçuk Bayraktar criticised the widespread use of foreign platforms.
“You don’t come here (to the new platform) and share postings. But you use the thing of the foreigner. You love it, but all your data goes there. Will you be able to raise your voice when they will kill your baby? The world is under such a threat,” Bayraktar declared, speaking on a program broadcast by CNN Türk.
From their bank accounts to their ownership of properties, from the addresses of their siblings to their professional activities, Turkish citizens provide masses of personal information to the visa companies.
Turkey has no law regulating the functions of companies providing visa services. Neither the Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Interior Ministry appears concerned that confidential information about Turkish citizens will pass into the hands of foreign companies operating without any oversight in the absence of any partnership with Turkish companies.
Ironically, the two major companies in the sector are all administered by Indians. BLS, which acquired the Turkish company İDATA, is an Indian company, while Indian citizens still hold all the high executive positions in VFS, despite its acquisition by Blackstone.
In May, India revoked the security clearance of Çelebi Airport Services India, a unit of Turkey's Çelebi, citing national security concerns. New Delhi's decision came following Turkey’s support for Pakistan during its recent conflict with India.
