Turkey tightened control over Russians and their pets who arrived in the country

“Even got to the bottom of my cat!” – the “new Russian” resident of the Turkish coast is horrified. Russian relocators to Turkey, including “long-livers”, as Russian-speaking immigrants with long experience call themselves, have been in shock for the second week. The tightening, which began with the gendarmerie going door-to-door with foreigners to check their registration, is gaining momentum.

We found out what else the Turkish authorities came up with to control the “Russians who came in large numbers” first-hand.

“We received a message that our cat must be microchipped by December 31,” says Russian woman Inna, who arrived in the Turkish resort area a month ago and expects to stay there for a long time. – At the same time, you won’t get a clear answer from the official authorities to all sorts of pressing questions, but my Matroskin has already been tracked!

The newcomer resident of Antalya suggests that the leadership of their “site” (several houses united by a single territory, a swimming pool, parking and a management company) could tell about her cat Matroskin where to go. Auth.).

“The day before, a circular was issued that homeless animals are dangerous to health, they cannot be fed and touched, and foreigners need to chip their pets and enter them into a single register,” says Inna. – Local animals are almost never kept in houses, Iranians and other oriental people living here, too. But Russians have animals in almost every house, especially if there are children in the family. Therefore, apparently, the Russians are sent a reminder.

Before the New Year, Russian settlers should be chipped not only cats and dogs, but also all pets, which theoretically can run away and start “homeless” in Turkish territory. And these are hamsters, guinea pigs, birds – in general, everything except for fish. But the Russians, who have “long come in large numbers” to Turkey, assure the newcomers that this is by no means the worst thing that the Turkish bureaucracy is capable of, if it even takes it into its head to rewrite something or someone. For example, the other day, many Russians, including those who already have an “ikamet” (Turkish residence permit. – Auth.), received a message that they need to take some “adaptation to Turkish life courses”, which take eight hours. “It would be nice if they offered this to those who had just moved here, but the text messages came, it seems, to everyone in general – even to us! writes a Russian woman who has been permanently living in Turkey for nine and a half years in her blog. “What an adaptation, I can read such lectures myself!”

It is not yet clear to most Russian migrants whether these courses are voluntary or compulsory: on the day the message was received, the link to the registration form did not work at all and came to life only on Monday morning. But the website of the Office for Work with Foreigners, which owns this educational initiative, notifies that migrants who have not passed the adaptation may have problems obtaining and renewing a residence permit.

“Then why did they send it to those who already have an ikamet?” – I am privately interested in an employee of this department.

“Precisely because over the past month the flow of Russians pouring into our country has ceased to be accountable,” the Turkish clerk answers on condition of anonymity. – In the process, they will figure out, of course, who needs these courses and who does not, now our main task is to understand what is happening with our livestock in general. Only in Alanya alone had to create several new cemeteries, the existing ones can not cope.

Relocators from the Russian Federation complain: every day, a new notification via a message on the phone. “Yesterday, I got a text message from the electric company,” another Russian woman confirms. “Update your data within 15 days, and if you do not, then you are using electricity illegally, and we will turn you off.” According to the woman, after updating the information on the website of the electric company, she reported this to the support service. But in response, she received a demand to appear in person with documents anyway.

However, the main pain of Russian newcomers to Turkish soil is the increasingly difficult conditions for obtaining ikamet right before our eyes. Not only that, more than a thousand regions of the country do not give a foreigner the right to a residence permit, even if he does not rent there, but bought a house. But from now on, ikamet needs a certain medical insurance, and since October 19 it has risen in price by 50%. “Long-time” Russians believe that the matter is also in a clear change in the contingent: “Previously, people with low or average incomes came here to live, but now (apparently due to lack of choice) rich people come here. Our Alanya is full of expensive cars, the cost of real estate that has grown many times does not bother anyone – apartments are sold out at any price, ”the Russian woman writes. And if the rich Russians, who immediately bought Turkish real estate, are experiencing difficulties with the ikamet, what can we say about mere mortal relocants?!

“Before the pandemic, it was elementary to get ikamet,” says a Russian who moved to the Turkish Riviera three and a half years ago. – I filled out the online form, took out insurance wherever you want and once drove me personally handed over the documents. And soon they invite me to receive it, they immediately gave me two years. And then you can extend it. After five years of owning Turkish real estate and after eight years of extending the ikamet, even without buying a home, it was possible to apply for Turkish citizenship. But now everything has become more complicated: the requirements for the ikamet have grown, including financially: certain insurance, housing in a certain area, and all that. One will be given, the other is not – a lottery. Ours, who have been here for a long time, hastened to apply for citizenship, but it looks like there are problems there too!

“One bureaucratic gag on their part, then another,” shares a couple from Russia, who have so far unsuccessfully applied for Turkish citizenship. – And each time personally with documents to Antalya, and we are in Alanya – you won’t run into! And everything is in Turkish, and completely nonsense. To apply for citizenship, “verify legal income in Turkey.” And how to confirm it if ikamet does not give a foreigner the right to work?! Then, they say, find a Turk to vouch for you financially. And you go find locals who are ready to vouch for you … “