New Visa Rules

[si18665]

I have found the Turkish bureaucracy painful in some circumstance but I think that we are moaning a bit here, regarding this topic.

I think VISA follows the same rules between the host and the guest countries. An example of an UK VISA applicable for Turkish is available here: https://www.gov.uk/general-visit-visa. In addition, almost any EU country requires a minimum staying of 181 days per each year, in order for a citizen being considered resident. I travel a lot and the phrase of EU citizen who is free to cross any EU country makes me laugh. You are free to travel in any EU country as long as you don't bring your belongings with you. If you require a car insurance, a bank account, boat trailer, from an EU country to another EU country, then you can see that EU citizenship is vapourware because each country applies its own rules. So, I don't think that Turkish VISA regulations are unfair.

Talking or writing about Kalkan, I was there last Christmas and New Year Evening. The excavators and drilling were relentless 12 hour per day including Saturdays and Sundays. Developers are eager to build as much as villas they can and destroy olive trees as much as they can. I had a closer look at what they are building and found poor quality in several cases. They are keen to have new villas ready for the seasons and mostly for British tourists who dream a warm retirement or invest their savings. I do like Kalkan and happy to rent a house there, but honestly I don't think that we are bringing a lot of wealth to the local people. We just help the economy on the seasonal basis and then go back to our countries. What it remains, is a beautiful nature with a lot of concrete, cement and roads without tarmac or drainage.