Production of domestic passport has begun

Minister of the Interior Süleyman Soylu announced that the production of local and national passports will be started and the green passport will be printed first. Soylu visited the General Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs at night and started the production of the local and national passport, which will be the most secure passport in the world with features such as holographic strip, ghost image, metamorphic pattern, and is called the "third generation". Speaking to reporters here, Soylu explained what has been done so far in the new generation driver's license, chip ID card and new generation passports. Stating that 1 million 630 thousand passports have been printed since January, Soylu said that 1 million 153 thousand passports were printed in the same period last year. Pointing out the problems experienced in the production of chip passports due to developments in the world, Soylu stated that the General Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs and the General Directorate of the Mint have been working on local and national passports since March upon the instructions of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Minister Soylu, who stated that they set the target for the production of local and national passports as August, stated that the work was completed before the end of August. Minister Soylu continued as follows: "We will first print green passports for domestic passports. There is a high demand here. Daily passport demand is 7-8 thousand, but for the last 4-5 months this demand has been fluctuating between 10 thousand-15 thousand. This is due to the fact that there is a patriotic media that especially likes to politicize everything. This media made a deliberate announcement in order to misinform the society and turn the issue into chaos, saying, 'Passports will reach in 2023 at an exorbitant price.' This is a completely speculative statement. They made such a broadcast that they were successful. There is no limit to treachery. There is truly no limit to discord and treachery. They pulled our production demand of approximately 7-8 thousand to 15-16 thousand. We can catch up with that too. We have issued 1 million 630 thousand passports since the beginning of the year and 58 percent of them did not go abroad. The passport was not used to go abroad. We already issue daily passports in emergencies. We have been issuing this for many years. We work that fast, has the opportunity to come and get his passport from here in an hour. They manipulated this too, they said, 'Long queues are forming'." Soylu, who gave the information that there are currently approximately 112 thousand green passport requests, approximately 57 thousand of which are extension requests, reminded that they extended the duration of green passports from 5 years to 10 years with the decision they made in May. Minister Soylu said, "As of yesterday, August 29, we had the opportunity to make a realization that will provide the extension of the existing period in green passports. All of our population directorates will be able to do this. They will be able to extend their passports that have expired for 5 years, 3 years or 2 years to 10 years without paying any fee or money," he said. "There are 36 additional security elements" Explaining the features of local and national passports, Minister Soylu drew attention to the fact that the word "Türkiye" was included instead of "Turkey" in these passports. Minister of Interior Soylu noted that there were 27 security elements in previous passports, while there are 36 additional security elements in the local and national passport. Stating that there are photographs of Turkey's historical and cultural sites on the pages of the local and national passports, Soylu noted that Turkey's endemic plant structure is also used as a security and complementary element. Minister Soylu said, "Turkey is starting to print its own local and national passport as of tonight. We will first print 1000, then we will print 2,000 the next day, 5,000 the next day, and 10,000 the day after." Underlining that the controls will continue during the printing stages, Minister Soylu reported that 100 percent security success was achieved in the test printings. Thanking the officials of the General Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs and the General Directorate of Mint, Soylu stated that within the framework of the agreement made with Hungary, Turkey will print 250 thousand passports of Hungary annually, and Hungary will print 250 thousand passports of Turkey, and that these countries will meet each other's needs in cases of processes arising from natural disasters. "We do not have any problems anymore" Stating that they have also taken steps regarding the production of semi-finished products used in passport production, Soylu said, "We will have printed approximately 170 thousand passports by the end of next month, which will be a one-month process. Then it will increase to 250 thousand, then 300 thousand, and then it will continue to increase." In response to a question, Soylu stated that TÜBİTAK ensured the harmonization of the chips used. Minister Soylu, who drew attention to the fact that citizens should not have a concern as if "there will be no tomorrow" regarding passports, stated that the receipt of passports obtained from other countries will continue. In response to a question, Minister Soylu stated the following: "After printing the green passport, we will start printing new diplomatic, ordinary and gray passports. We will have melted all of the pending demand for green passports within 5-10 days as possible. We made a production plan. Then we will both issue and start stocking. We will realize both diplomatic, ordinary and gray passports by ensuring that the demand for green passports decreases. There is a demand for 120 thousand ordinary passports, we currently have 100 thousand ordinary passports. We do not have any problems anymore. We will also meet the demand for green passports by printing them here."