Fleeing Turkey: the grey passport scandal
Turkish media report that hundreds of Turkish citizens who entered Germany visa-free using grey "service passports" have since gone into hiding there. In one case, a businessman from Hanover acted as the inviter and four civil servants in the AKP-ruled province of Malatya have been suspended for their complicity. The fugitives are said to have paid up to 8,000 euros for the grey passports.
People just want to get out
The affair puts Turkey in a very bad light, Karar explains:
“According to studies, 45 percent of young people - and according to some surveys as much as 75 percent of them - see their future abroad and want to study, work or simply live abroad if they get the chance. A grey passport would suffice for this. Our normal passports are practically worthless, but our grey passports are very valuable, no one can deny that! Isn't it scary to live in a country where women and men are so desperate that they consider becoming refugees, and even young people are looking for a way to leave?”
Who is envious of whom here?
It's astonishing that AKP officials are helping AKP supporters to flee, mocks the opposition Sözcü:
“People smuggling wasn't on the AKP's list of activities before, but now the time has come! ... [The AKP-led government] had told us that the economy was doing well, we were developing quickly, unemployment was falling, we were going to fly to the moon and send a human into space! Poor Germany couldn't but be envious of us! But a funny thing happened. Forty-three AKP members have fled to Germany, which is envious of us! ... The AKP-led Malatya Yeşilyurt municipal government issued grey passports to 47 party members for a study trip. The convoy entered Germany without visas, but of the 47 AKP members only 4 have returned! ... This will go down as a bad mark in the party's report.”