Interior Minister: Legalization of Azerbaijanis illegally living in Turkey will be solved soon - EXCLUSIVE

‘We are aware of the issue of legalization of Azerbaijanis illegally residing in Turkey and working on it, Turkish Minister of Internal Affairs Suleyman Soylu told Report’s Turkish bureau.

According to him, proper steps will be taken: ‘We are aware of the issue and working on it. We are working on the general migration policy of the Turkish government. Azerbaijanis are our brothers. This issue will be solved soon’.

The issue of legalization of Azerbaijanis illegally living in Turkey, especially in Istanbul, has been on the agenda for a long time. The State Committee on Work with Diaspora has created a Working Group on more than 1,000 Azerbaijanis, who moved to Turkey in the 1990s and have illegally been living in Turkey. Registration of these families has begun, and the issue will be solved step-by-step.

Even the Committee made the first attempts for Azerbaijanis to avoid the illegal migration. In late September, meetings were held in the regions of Istanbul, where illegal Azerbaijanis live compactly. Moreover, specialists of Azerbaijan’s Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Internal Affairs, the State Committee on Work with Diaspora, Migration Service, Ministry of Education, and ASAN Service were directed to the research of the issue.

On the other hand, there is information that from 2020 the Directorate General of Migration Management won’t extend the registration of citizens come from Turkic-speaking countries and settled in Turkey with the tourist visa. New rules are reported to be applied in this regard. Those coming from other Turkic-countries will be able to obtain a tourist visa for only one year. This shows that the rules will be tightened. Azerbaijani families living in Turkey without any document and registration are concerned about uncertainty in 2020.