Ever since last year's attempted coup, the Erdogan regime in Turkey has become even more sensitive to criticism and has increased its arrests of journalists, NGO workers and others who speak up against the authoritarian regime. Lately, these raids and long-term detainments have started to affect foreigners residing in Turkey. These foreigners included German, Finnish and U.S. citizens, many of whom were dual Turkish citizens or of Turkish origin.
These arrests were extremely detrimental to Turkey's relationship with its most important trading partner, Germany, and criticizing Turkey became a popular tactic in the general election campaign in September. However, the Erdogan regime was not phased by German criticism, in fact, it doubled down and called for Turkish-Germans to vote against the parties criticizing Turkey, which included almost all of them.
Turkish media, after bouts of newspaper closures and mass arrests of journalists, could only find itself room to have discussions on why the Germans, a major ally, would abandon Turkey. On radio shows and news programs, reporters would try to come up with a reason; why would our friend Germany turn its back on us? The discussion wouldn't mention that Erdogan recently referred to the German government's stance on Turkey's EU membership as "Nazism" or the fact that there are still German citizens in Turkish jails on political charges.
A similar but even more detrimental crisis broke out this past week when the United States, in response to many issues straining its relations with Turkey, including the arrests of a U.S. pastor, a NASA scientist and other U.S. citizens, suspended the printing of non-immigrant visas.
As with any international incident, reciprocity was important, so Turkey released the exact same statement regarding its visa services for U.S. citizens. Although Turkey was within norms by responding with equal treatment to the United States, it has been much less effective because the Turkish economy needs any tourist income coming from travelers ignoring the trumped-up State Department travel warnings; turning away tourists is not going to be economically beneficial.
However, the most pertinent issue that has been in the discussions recently is the problem of student visas. Turkish students are the 13th largest student population in the United States and consistently in the top 5 most represented at Tufts. With visa services suspended in Turkey, many students getting accepted to U.S. colleges such as Tufts will find it hard to get student visas.
So even though the United States closed visa services in Turkey, it also will not assist Turkish students trying to obtain visas at U.S. consulates in other countries. Once again, a dispute between governments has hurt the people. This quagmire could, if it is not resolved before the summer, lead to fewer Turkish students at schools across the United States, including Tufts University. And, once again, the news coverage of this diplomatic tussle is to the tune of "[the] United States and Turkey mutually suspend visa services" when that is only partially the truth.
Looking Out: Suspended
