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Officers on the Greek island of Rhodes opened a brand new trip visa terminal for Turkish guests on Monday as a part of a diplomatic effort to ease long-standing tensions between the 2 international locations.
The limited-access visa will permit Turks to go to 10 Greek islands for as much as per week with out having to use for full entry to the European Union’s passport-free journey zone, often called the Schengen space.
NATO members Greece and Turkey launched a number of initiatives final yr to attempt to sidestep decades-old disputes — largely over sea boundaries and mineral rights within the Aegean Sea— to give attention to commerce.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in December to signal a collection of bilateral cooperation agreements in Athens. Mitsotakis will go to Turkey subsequent month. “The specific visa will be issued not solely in summer season, however all yr spherical. The measure is designed to spice up tourism in areas and at instances of the yr when there may be not lots of site visitors, so it should assist the native economies,” Mitsotakis wrote in a weekly on-line publish Sunday.
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Granted at collaborating Greek ports, the brand new visa will price 60 euros and can embrace a passport examine and fingerprint recording, whereas guests won’t be allowed to journey onto different EU member states, Greek officers mentioned.
“The brand new system is prepared and there’s a lot of demand from Turkish guests. However there have been no boats scheduled to reach right now. We can have arrivals later this week,” Vassilis Vayiannakis, head of the Rhodes Port Fund, advised the AP.
The islands within the trip visa program all lie close to the Turkish shoreline and likewise embrace Lesbos, Limnos, Chios, Samos, Leros, Kalymnos, Kos, Symi and Kastellorizo, with the smaller islands as a consequence of take part June.
Turkey has lengthy sought extra relaxed journey guidelines for its residents visiting the EU in trade for its cooperation with member states of the bloc that embrace efforts to curb unlawful immigration. Tourism is an important business for the Greek economic system. The nation welcomed 32.7 million guests final yr, elevating 20.5 billion euros, in response to central financial institution information.
