Discrimination in Istanbul, Turkey
On my way to Republic of Georgia for a business trip, I have a 12 hour layover in Istanbul, Turkey (in fact while typing this post I am still here waiting for my boarding). I arrived at the Istanbul airport around 12PM (Turkey time) and I planned to visit Istanbul even for few hours only. To my dismay, when I went to the Visa section and you know what is their reason?
They said that they can’t issue me a visa because I’m a Philippines passport holder. Can you believe that crap? Isn’t that a discrimination? For me it is!
The passport control officer advised me to go to Turkish Airlines information desk to inquire on my layover. I asked for an airport hotel since I am staying for more or less 12 hours. They said they can issue me a hotel but the sad thing is that there’s no available room for me. The only they can do is to give me a food voucher and it’s good for one meal. All I can do right now is just to spend my precious 12 hours here at the airport food court.
I’m supposed to post some photos of the food here but right now I am so beat up and don’t want to reach the cam out of my backpack.
Next time I’ll post those photos and will tell you how too damn expensive the food here! That will be my next story.
[...] the second time I flew with Turkish Airlines and the first one was kind of not in a pleasant way (click here to read previous article). I find Turkish people at the Istanbul Airport very rude, I am hoping this time it will be [...]
Sorry to hear what you had to go through at the Turkish Border.
I agree that it is a sort discrimination against certain nationalities particularly Phillipino’s for whose country where we don’t need a visa to go to. But mind you it’s the same for us that we have to get a visa to go almost every single country whereas they can come without any pre-arranged visa.
I am totally agains these visa’s and all the useless protocoles but it is always a good practice to check the counsular pages to get an idea about immigration policies before going to the check-in counter.
Rudeness and niceness is a relative cultural perception. Whatever you might find rude could be very a normal behaviour for certain cultures. As they say “when in Rome do what Romans do”. But if you cannot do it properly you not only will look silly, but will also see the things getting worse…reading, reading and reading a lot is the only advise i can give.
All the best,
Deniz