EU EXPANSION | 20.12.2009

Angered Turkey demands visa-free travel to EU's Schengen area

Turkey has faced several obstacles in its EU accession bid

Turkey says it wants the European Union to drop visa restrictions on its citizens seeking to travel to the bloc after restrictions for three other non-EU countries were lifted Saturday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says the country deserves to have visa restrictions against it dropped by the EU after Serbian, Montenegrin and Macedonian citizens were granted visa-free travel rights to the Schengen area.

Davutoglu said the visa waiver should be granted despite little progress being made with Brussels on Ankara's EU membership aspirations.

"It's unacceptable that certain Balkan countries that are in the initial stages of the membership process and have not begun negotiations have been given the Schengen privilege, while Turkey, considering the level that Turkish-EU relations have reached, has not," Davutoglu said at a news conference.

"We will follow this closely from now on," he said, according to the state-run Anatolian news agency.

Citizens of the 25 signatory countries to the Schengen Agreement are allowed to cross into other Schengen countries without a visa. The exceptions are Bulgaria, Cyprus, Romania, Liechtenstein, Ireland and the UK, which have not - or only partly - implemented the agreement yet.

Davutoglu had previously criticized the EU plans to lift visa restrictions for Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia, while keeping them for Muslim majority Bosnia-Herzegovina and Albania.

"The way it's being done by the EU is giving the wrong signals," a Turkish Foreign Ministry official said.

Predominantly Muslim Turkey, a country of 71 million, has hit several roadblocks in its EU accession bid. The EU has frozen several aspects of talks Ankara over its failure to open its port and airports with EU member Cyprus, with which Turkey has a strained history and continued military presence in the independent north of the divided island.


dfm/dpa/Reuters
Editor: Andreas Illmer

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