Migrants and the Asylum Problem in Turkey and Europe: A Reality with Two Faces - i.e. Why can't you get a visa?

Last winter, my sister applied for a Greek visa, thinking that it would be easier to come to Germany. As a result of the 10-day single-entry visa, she had to fly from Thessaloniki and stay in Thessaloniki for 2 nights in order not to risk the next Greek visa. As a result of her difficulties, they decided to have their wedding in Montenegro, which does not require visa for Turkish citizens, instead of Berlin. It wasn't bad of course, we enjoyed opening the season in the turquoise Adriatic waters, but the Schengen visa problem was among the most talked about topics. Many of my loved ones said "I will come if I can get a visa", and we pushed our dreams to the future days, thinking that one day these days will be behind us. Moreover, these were the people with the lowest risk of asylum and the most favourable visa status on paper. Not only our agenda, but the agenda of the whole country was suddenly filled with news that even artists who wanted to give concerts could not get visas. Doctors, artists, and so on, and now your turn is coming, or has already come.

First of all, I recommend you to read this article (unfortunately in Turkish, but you can use deepl.com to translate) in which I also participate. The article provides a comprehensive, fact-by-fact account of why Turkish citizens cannot get visas or have problems getting visas.  As someone who lives in Europe and follows Turkey, I would like to express a few personal opinions.

Let's go back a few years ago. Many people who today complain about visas were complaining about all Arabs and Afghans in Turkey, including Syrians. Unfortunately, these complaints often included racist rhetoric. At that time, I also said a few words about these social media posts and stated that these discourses were very dangerous, that the same weapon had already turned against us in Europe and that it could lead to even worse consequences in the future. 

Today, similar discourses are ravaging Europe. While in Turkey the danger is political Islam, in Europe the danger has already evolved from Islamic terrorist organisations to anti-islam. Or in other words, the problem in Europe is the rising far-right, racism and neo-Nazi movements. Whichever definition you see fit. However, the discourse is the same, just like in Turkey, even highly educated and open-minded people in Europe have been complaining for some time that "we are becoming foreigners in our own country, I am tired of hearing Arabic".  If even these people who would not put racism on themselves have started to speak like this, these discourses that seem innocent today will bring the whole world to the bottom tomorrow.

Are these people wrong? Certainly they have many understandable sides. I am aware of this, because I see this both where I live and when I come to Istanbul. But as I said, the same sentences that you are uttering are also uttered by the European counterparts. Moreover, since most of them are not as intellectual as we think they are, they lump everyone in their East, you, me, Afghans, Syrians, in the same category. In passing, they mention that they also hear the language of Ukrainians all the time, but they add that they see them not as a big thread. Now, when these sentences are uttered against us, are the Europeans racist, but when we utter Europeans, are we not? Or is there a legitimate reason for the racist sentences we utter, but not for those uttered by Europeans? They use the same sentences and the object of their sentences includes us. 

I would like to remind you that the years of the black plague paved the road to Hollacaust. After the Second World War, organisations such as the Council of Europe, which brought together European states to promote the rule of law, democracy, human rights and social development, as well as the United Nations for world peace, were established and many steps were taken for the well-being of the world. Yes, there have always been wars in the world, but we have never seen the bottom like in the Second World War. Yet. While we are very close to the idea of a new peace for the world, but before those bright days, we are witnessing new waves of racism that Covid-19 is laying a motorway for. This is precisely why it does not matter how justified you think you are. We need to develop a common language against racism and to express our discomfort with migrants in a reasonable, logical and ethical critical language within the framework of the law.