Greece to give Turkish citizens easy visas to visit its 10 Aegean islands

Greek authorities are on track to establish a one-year visa-on-arrival program for Turkish travelers in an effort to ease years of strained relations with Turkey.

Following a meeting between the Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and the President of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, local media from both countries reported Greece's plan to introduce an automatic visa system to enable Turkish citizens to travel. Reported on the plan. Its ten islands are under relaxed visa regime.

At a joint press conference after the meeting, PM Mitsotakis also said that his government has already received EU Commission approval to launch such a scheme. SchengenVisaInfo.com Report.

Greece requested and secured EU approval to activate the possibility for Turks and their families to visit ten of our islands throughout the year, where there are either refugee structures or ferry connections with Turkiye.

Earlier, Greece's Immigration Minister Dimitris Karides had claimed that the measure would bring Greeks and Turks closer to each other.

The visa will be granted on-spot and will be valid for a maximum period of seven days on single entry. The islands to be included in this new scheme are as follows:

1. Lemnos
2. lesvos
3. Chios
4. Samos
5. leros
6. Kalymnos
7. curse
8. Rhodes
9. simi
10. kastellorizo

During the press conference PM Mitsotakis also expressed his support for Turkey's request to gain visa-free access to the Schengen area.

With regard to Greece's continued support for Turkey's European accession process, our country always supports the facilitation of visas within the framework of European accession, so that Turkey's new generation of scientists, businessmen, students can develop closer ties with Europe. Can.

The meeting between the Prime Ministers is the fifth in a series of meetings between the two countries. A declaration on friendship and good neighborly relations has also been signed which focuses on strengthening ties, continuing to work together for the benefit of both societies and strengthening bilateral relations through existing institutional mechanisms.

currently, Turkish citizens must apply for a Schengen visa to visit Greece For tourism purposes including islands. According to schengen visa statisticsIn 2022, Turkish citizens filed the highest number of Schengen visas at the Schengen Consulates in Turkiye, totaling 778,409.

164,829 applications were filed at the Greek Consulate in the country, making Greece the second country with the highest number of applications received by Turkish citizens, after Germany, which received 223,699 applications in the same year.