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Britain pushed visa-free travel for Turks to EU
 [Praag.org] High-level UK diplomats have discussed lifting the visa regime for nearly 1.5 million Turks, as a "symbolic gesture" necessary to incentivize Ankara on the controversial EU-Turkey migrant deal, according to leaked British embassies’ cables.The diplomats advised visa liberalization to prevent Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from derailing the landmark EU-Turkey migrant deal, according to five leaked diplomatic cables seen by The Sunday Times exclusively. In a telegram to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Janet Douglas, the deputy head of mission in Ankara wrote: "Should [EU] visa liberalization be granted, we will need to develop our own lines on the UK’s stance to visa-free travel for Turks." "One option would be to assess again the possibility of visa travel for Turkish special passport holders, which would be a risk, but a significant and symbolic gesture to Turkey," Douglas said. Special passports were issued for up to 1.5 million Turkish government officials, civil servants, teachers and their families who were able to travel to the UK without a visa until 2009, according to the newspaper. If talks on visa liberalization fail, "an impetuous and riled Erdogan ‐ prone to come out fighting when he feels betrayed ‐ could carry through his threat to ’open the floodgates’ to Europe for migrants," her telegram warned. Posted by: Besoeker 2016-06-14 |
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