A contract was signed on 13 October which tremendously alleviates visa regulations between Turkey and Syria. With a valid passport citizens can easily enter each other's countries and stay for up to 90 days.
Journalist Bereket Kar from the city of Antakya close to the Turkish-Syrian border evaluates the new visa application for bianet:
Gain for border trade and tourism: The new visa application fuels the border trade and the shuttle trade. It also increases visits and tourism. Tourist groups have actually started to come to Turkey already. The region is revitalized.
Devided families can easily meet: There are many family relations in this border region. Since 1939 families are divided between the 2 countries. In the past they were forced to obtain visas. Now they can easily come and visit each other. The new application is most appreciated by those families. The city of Aleppo as a trade center and the touristic place of Lattakia are very close to Antakya. These cities and the city of Idlib with hundreds of thousands of people are crowded with divided families including Arabs, Kurds, people from Turkmenistan and Armenia. It takes approximately 2 hours to travel from Antakya to those cities.
Go and see Syria, you will love it: The new application motivates everybody who is interested to go visit Syria. It will improve the relationships and encourage people to get to know each other.
I recommend a visit to Syria to our intellectuals, to democratic people, to everybody who was effected by the official ideology until now and to people degrading Arabs in order for them to see the opposite of contemptuous official politics. There already are many inquiries for cultural tourism from Istanbul and Ankara. There are many people who want to come and see themselves.
They will see that people in Syria are not that much different, they are warm people ready for cooperation and solidarity. Let us build bridges between the Turkish and the Syrian people.
Syria has important historic and cultural sites. We might say that they are better preserved compared to Turkey.
Going to Syria is very easy: The easiest way to go to Syria is probably with a touristic tour. Or you can go by taxi from Antakya, it is just 35 TL. These taxis work from both countries throughout the day. If you want to go Damascus it is 30 TL for a bus ticket. (TK/VK)
