Greece risks losing Turkish tourists due to visa issues

Zaytung, the Turkish version of The Onion, wrote that "Greece declared a state of emergency," following the decision of the Turkish government to extend the Feast of Sacrifice holiday to 10 days due to start this Saturday.

The Turkish government made this decision to support the Turkish tourism industry, which has been in dire straits for the past two or three years. So under normal circumstances it should not particularly please the government to see Turkish tourists going to Greece and supporting the Greek economy, which has not fully recovered from the economic crisis.

Yet, it would be rather highly absurd to assume Greeks are trying to please the Turkish government to explain the recent problems Turks have started to face when they apply to Greek missions in Turkey.

It was and continues to be difficult to get a Schengen visa from EU member countries. It has become even harder. Greece had been an exception and had built a reputation among Turks for being a bit easier in issuing Schengen visas. That was one of the reasons explaining the flow of Turkish tourists to Greece.
But lately, I have been hearing a lot of complaints from Turks applying to Greek missions.

They are especially complaining about receiving short-term visas.

I can understand that Greeks might have been angry at those who received a Schengen visa from them and ended up going to another Schengen country. This problem, called "visa shopping," which also includes the cases where the person spends only a short time in the country in which he or she received the Schengen but spends most of their time in another Schengen country, was cited as an important issue by the press office of the Greek Consulate in Istanbul.

But is issuing a short-term...