APPENDIX 23
Letter to the Committee from Andrew Boord
Although the date for submitting formal evidence
has passed, I would like to furnish you with a copy of a letter
that I have sent to HM Consul in Istanbul concerning the administration
of the UK Visa regime in Turkey.
I have been told that this issue has been raised
by Mr David Barchard in his evidence to the Committee, and I kindly
request that my letter be added as a supporting document.
I am a British citizen, resident in Istanbul
for 16 years, have served on the British Community Council in
Istanbul, and work as Chief Advisor to a retired Member of the
Turkish Parliament, a member of a leading Turkish business and
industrialist family. From 1995-99 I worked as his assistant while
he was deputy chairman of the Turkish Parliamentary Foreign Affairs
Commission and chairman of the Turkey-UK Inter-Parliamentary Friendship
Group.
My letter, which I faxed to HM Consul yesterday,
attempts to express the widely held feelings of alarm and concern
on this issue within a spirit of constructive friendship and loyalty
to Britain.
Public concern in Turkey about this issue is
growing and anti-British feeling is being provoked at a sensitive
time.
I strongly believe that the situation requires
review and that changes need to be made to improve the efficiency
and quality of the administration of the visa regime.
I thank you for your kind assistance and cooperation,
and wish the Committee well on its important and complex work.
Andrew Boord
February 2002
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