Turkish citizens wishing to visit the United States will again be able to apply for visas, but not anytime soon.

The U.S. Embassy in Ankara announced this week that the earliest appointments for applications are in January 2019, more than a year from now.

The U.S. suspended all nonimmigrant visa services in Turkey Oct. 8 in response to the arrest of Metin Topuz, a consulate employee in Istanbul, on terrorism charges. Turkey shut down visa services in the U.S. in retaliation.

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The two nations resumed limited visa services in early November, around the time of a visit to Washington by Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.

In a statement on Twitter this week, the U.S. Embassy said visa appointments “are still limited, but we are prioritizing F, J, M, and petition-based work categories, as well as applicants with medical and business travel.”

The statement added that appointments “are available for January 2019, and applicants can always choose to apply outside of Turkey.”

F, J and M visas provide for different kinds of academic and vocational studies in the U.S.

A State Department official told VOA Wednesday that the purpose of the suspension in visa services was to minimize visits to the embassy and consulates “while we assessed the commitment of the government of Turkey to the security of our diplomatic facilities and personnel.”

Few details offered

The State Department declined to elaborate on the reasons for the yearlong delay in visa appointments.

But several Turkish citizens tell VOA in Istanbul the more than yearlong wait just to apply for a visa will hurt many Turks.

“How many American citizens come to Turkey in order to make money besides the appointed soldiers and the diplomatic personnel and their families,” Murat Akyuzoglu, a lawyer, asked. “But hundreds of thousands of Turks live in the U.S. and all of those people’s friends and families live here.”

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A teacher said the U.S. owes Turks “an explanation” while two students called the waiting period a political and anti-Muslim policy.

The visa spat has been a low point in a long-running deterioration in relations between the U.S. and Turkey, a key NATO ally straddling Europe and the Middle East, and once a Cold War listening post into the Soviet Union.

Relations worsened with an attempted coup in Turkey in July 2016, which the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed on dissident cleric Fethullah Gulen, who now lives in self-imposed exile in the U.S.

WATCH: Lawyer Murat Akyüzoğlu

Washington has rebuffed repeated Turkish requests for his extradition, saying Ankara has not provided satisfactory evidence of his involvement in the coup attempt. Gulen has denied the accusations. Turkey has accused Topuz, who remains in custody, of being tied to Gulen’s network.

The U.S.-Turkish relationship has also been troubled by American support for the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia that played a vital role in the war against Islamic State extremists in Iraq and Syria. Turkey sees the group as a terrorist organization linked to a Kurdish separatist movement in southeastern Turkey.

Erdogan said last month that President Donald Trump had promised in a phone call to cut off arms shipments to the YPG. But the Pentagon later said any arms shipments would be decided based on needs on the ground.

WATCH: Student Taha Celik

More recently, Turkey has been angered by the trial in New York of Mehmet Hakan Atilla, deputy head of the Turkish state-owned Halkbank, who is accused of helping to circumvent U.S. sanctions on Iran.

During testimony in late November, Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab, the prosecution’s star witness who has pleaded guilty in the case, accused Erdogan and his then-finance minister, Ali Babacan, of being aware of the sanctions-evasion scheme. Erdogan has criticized the probe as politically motivated.

VOA’s Ken Schwartz contributed to this report.
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Austria’s new chancellor traveled to Brussels on Tuesday on his first foreign trip since being sworn in, aiming to dispel concerns that his coalition with the far right spells trouble for the European Union.

Responding to a letter on Monday from European Council President Donald Tusk that underlined EU worries, 31-year-old conservative leader Sebastian Kurz tweeted back that his new government would be “clear pro-European and committed to making a positive contribution to the future development of the EU.”

A day after he took office at the head of a coalition with the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), Kurz delivered that message in person to Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, whose EU executive has responded to October’s election with little of the outrage that greeted the FPO’s first taste of government in Austria 17 years ago.

At a joint news conference in Brussels, Juncker said he would judge Kurz’s government by its deeds.

“This government has a clear pro-European stance. That is what is important for me,” Juncker said.

The FPO has distanced itself from its Nazi-apologist, anti-Semitic past, while surges in irregular immigration and militant attacks have pushed the European political mainstream rightward, leading to a much more muted reaction than in 2000.

But a French member of the Commission was wary: “Things are doubtless different from the previous time, in 2000,” tweeted Socialist former finance minister Pierre Moscovici. “But the presence of the far right in government is never without consequences.”

Confirmation of the FPO’s return to a share of power raises concern that small, wealthy Austria will be an intractable voice on EU asylum reform and efforts to increase the EU budget.

The bluntest criticism has been south of the Alps, where a plan to offer Austrian citizenship to people living in Italy’s German-speaking border region has rekindled worries over old territorial arguments.

“Iron Fist, Velvet Glove”

A junior foreign minister in Rome said the offer may be couched in a “velvet glove of Europeanism” but bore “a whiff of the ethno-nationalist iron fist.”

Kurz assured Italians on Tuesday that he would consult Rome on the plan, which is a long-standing FPO policy, adding he would speak to Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.

For an EU battered by mounting nationalism that goes well beyond Brexit, there is concern too that criticism of Brussels in Vienna may help fuel the euroscepticism of former communist member states in Central Europe, including Poland, where the Commission is seriously considering imposing sanctions that were initially designed in response to the FPO’s rise early this century.

Speaking in Brussels, Kurz said he would make it Austria’s task to bridge the gap between EU member states in the east and the west, adding his country would fight to stop illegal immigration into the EU.

In a letter of congratulation to Kurz, Tusk made clear his concerns about the new coalition in Austria: “I trust that the Austrian government will continue to play a constructive and pro-European role in the European Union,” Tusk wrote, noting that Austria will from July enjoy six months of influence in Brussels as chair of EU ministerial councils.

Germany and France, the EU’s lead powers, also indicated a vigilance about Austria in their comments on Monday which highlighted Kurz’s pledges to foster European cooperation.

Kurz’s visit to Brussels comes on the eve of an important Commission meeting on Wednesday, where Juncker’s team will consider recommending sanctions on Poland for its continued defiance of warnings that its new laws on the judiciary are contrary to EU democratic standards.

“We are in a difficult process, which I hope will turn out to be a process of convergence. But not all bridges to Poland will be burnt tomorrow,” Juncker said.
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The European Union’s executive may trigger a process on Wednesday to begin to strip Poland of its voting rights in the bloc, officials say, as months of tensions between Brussels and Warsaw come to a head.

In what would be an unprecedented move, the European Commission could invoke Article 7 of the European Union’s founding Lisbon Treaty to punish Warsaw for breaking its rules on human rights and democratic values.

“Unless the Polish government postpones these court reforms, we will have no choice but to trigger Article 7,” said a senior EU official before a Commission meeting on Wednesday, where Poland’s reforms are on the agenda.

Poland’s new prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in Brussels last week that “the decision has already been made.”

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The Commission’s deputy head Frans Timmermans warned in July that Poland was “perilously close” to facing sanctions.

Such a punishment could still be blocked. Hungary, Poland’s closest ally in the EU, is likely to argue strongly against it.

But the mere threat of it underlines the sharp deterioration in ties between Warsaw and Brussels since the socially conservative Law and Justice (PiS) won power in late 2015.

The Commission says Poland’s judicial reforms limit judges’ independence. Polish President Andrzej Duda has until Jan. 5 to sign them into law.

If all EU governments agree, Poland could have its voting rights in the EU suspended, and may also see cuts in billions of euros of EU aid.

The PiS government rejects accusations of undemocratic behaviour and says its reforms are needed because courts are slow, inefficient and steeped in a communist era-mentality.

Following a non-binding European Parliament vote last month calling for Article 7 to be invoked, the Commission appears to have little leeway to grant Warsaw more time to amend its legislation.

The reforms would give the PiS-controlled parliament de facto control over the selection of judges and end the terms of some Supreme Court judges early.

The Council of Europe, the continent’s human rights watchdog, has compared such measures to those of the Soviet system.

The Commission fears letting Poland off the hook could weaken its hand, especially in the ex-communist east, and risk damaging the EU’s single market and cross-border legal cooperation.
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Fighting in eastern Ukraine has escalated to the worst level in months, officials monitoring the conflict said Tuesday, after the shelling of a front-line village wounded eight civilians and destroyed or damaged dozens of homes.

A Russia-backed insurgency erupted in 2014 and the bloodshed has continued despite a cease-fire deal that was meant to end a conflict in which more than 10,000 people have been killed, with casualties reported on a near-daily basis.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which monitors the implementation of the peace agreement, said it had recorded 16,000 cease-fire violations from December 11 to December 17, a 35 percent increase from the week before.

“We note with concern a sharp deterioration in the security situation with cease-fire violations reaching levels not recorded since February this year,” chief monitor Ertugrul Apakan said in a statement.

Violence near Avdiivka

In February, a surge of violence around the government-held industrial town of Avdiivka cut off power and water to thousands of civilians on the front line.

Apakan said the latest escalation reflected an established trend “in which a recommitment to the cease-fire by the sides was followed by a steady increase in the level of violence, culminating in fierce fighting.”

Apakan’s comments followed warnings from aid agencies about the humanitarian situation in the eastern Donbass region, particularly given Monday’s attack on the government-controlled village of Novoluhanske.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Twitter that heavy shelling near Novoluhanske was affecting 2,000 residents. People were fleeing the area in blizzard conditions, it said.

Eight civilians were wounded and more than 50 buildings were damaged in the shelling, which also temporarily cut power supplies, the regional Kyiv-controlled Donetsk administration said.

A Reuters witness saw residents picking their way through the rubble of destroyed homes and surveying fire-blackened buildings.

The Ukrainian military on Tuesday accused pro-Russian separatists of deliberately firing more than 40 times from multiple-launch rocket systems at Novoluhanske.

Rebels say they were targeted

Meanwhile, the rebel command said attacks from the Ukrainian side had almost doubled in the past 24 hours, according to separatist news website DAN.

Rebels denied attacking Novoluhanske and said the Ukrainian military had fired at the village to justify their attacks on separatist-held civilian areas, according to DAN.

In an effort to end the deadlock, the international community, including the United States, has in recent months been advocating for the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in the Donbass.

Both Kyiv and Moscow backed the idea but disagreed about whether the troops should be positioned on the rebel-controlled part of the Ukraine-Russia border, so no decision was made.

Russia denies accusations from Ukraine and NATO that it supports the rebels with troops and weapons.
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