Mehmet Y. Yilmaz: Does Turkey not want the Turks
Güncelleme Tarihi:
I've always found the phrase "A Turk's only friend is another Turk" a bit paranoid. But, as there is truth in the saying "Just because you are a paranoid does not mean you aren't being followed," there might be some truth in the first saying too.
It is no secret that, starting with the long visa lines at foreign consulates, a Turk trying to go abroad is easily convinced to give up on the dream. In many European countries now, it is not enough that you have a visa: our people are held by local authorities based on "profiling" they undergo as they step through the door of the plane.
But we are so used to this by now, it doesn't even surprise us.
Sunday night though, I returned from a short trip abroad, and saw a vision at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport which made me think maybe even Turkey no longer wants its Turks.
All over the world, including the US, people returning to their own country from abroad show their passports in due form and pass through the gates into the airport. Only in Turkey do we have to wait in long lines to get back in to our country, passing through stringent passport checks. I don't know if the police here really believe that Turks sought for crimes internationally would really try to pass through the normal passport lines at the airport. Yes, I can understand the lines when trying to leave the country; but re-entry doesn't really have to take this long, does it? How many criminals have really been captured using this system? Is there no way to speed up the re-entry of Turks into their own country?