Greece preparing to introduce a 1-year visa for Turkish citizens on arrival in the Aegean islands

Preparations are underway in Athens and Ankara ahead of the Turkish-Greek High-Level Cooperation Council (HLCC) meeting scheduled for December 7 in Thessaloniki, under the co-chairmanship of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

According to a report in Hürriyet newspaper, during a meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania on July 12 between Erdoğan and Mitsotakis, it was decided to open a new page in the two countries’ relations. As part of the preparations for the HLCC meeting in Thessaloniki, the final touches are being made for a series of agreements in areas such as trade, tourism, and disaster management. One of the most significant expected agreements is related to cooperation between the two countries against illegal immigration.

According to the report, following a meeting between Greek Minister of Migration and Asylum, Dimitris Keridis, and Turkish Minister of Interior, Ali Yerlikaya, in Ankara earlier this week, details of the ongoing agreement draft have surfaced in the Greek media. Based on info provided by Kathimerini newspaper, the draft of the “memorandum of understanding” includes a provision for a 1-year visa on arrival for Turkish citizens in several Greek islands in the Aegean, including Rhodes, Lesbos, Samos, Chios, Kos, Halki, and Kastellorizo. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the “visa on arrival” scheme for the islands was limited to just 15 days.