FROM THE VISA LINE: WINTER'S TALES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ISTANBUL 000167 SIPDIS SENSITIVE - NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL CVIS SOCI CASC KFRD KPAO TU SUBJECT: FROM THE VISA LINE: WINTER'S TALES ¶1. (SBU) Summary: From the Visa Line is a reporting vehicle encompassing vignettes, anecdotes and observations from Istanbul Consular officers' daily interactions with applicants. In recent months, some applicants have cited the increasingly nationalist climate in Turkey as a factor motivating their travel to the United States. End Summary. -------------- Come to Where the Flavor Is Not -------------- ¶2. (SBU) In December, an officer observed that the applicant before her was quaking more than usual for even the most nervous of visa-seekers. As the interview progressed, and it was clear the applicant had answered all questions truthfully and was qualified to travel to the United States, the officer's curiosity about his anxiety increased. Unable to reconcile his jittery demeanor with his reasoned responses, the officer finally asked the applicant directly why he was so shaky. His reply: "I haven't had a cigarette for two hours!" He last was seen walking quickly to the courtyard to light up. No word on how he will cope with a long, non-smoking flight. -------------- In the Aye-Yi-Yi of the Beholder -------------- ¶3. (SBU) An artist wishing to exhibit in Greenwich Village appeared at an officer's window in January. Asked about his work, the artist explained that he was a painter and the officer--taking advantage of the information technology at his fingertips--pulled up the applicant's home page on his computer screen. To his surprise, the officer discovered the applicant specialized in erotic portraiture. Lest he be cited for a cyber-security violation, the officer beckoned a colleague on the line to verify that his navigation to the website served a legitimate business purpose. Returning to the applicant, the officer asked about friends and family. Highlighting how tolerant Istanbul can be for a Muslim metropolis, the artist produced local press articles featuring his most famous work, a painting of a man in drag. He said the subject was his boyfriend and rhapsodized that "he looks great in makeup and women's clothes." The artist received a visa. -------------- Noblesse Non-Oblige -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Also in January, an applicant said he wished to travel to the United States to donate his kidney to a fellow Turk. He explained that he and the would-be recipient, a wealthy woman he knew from the hair salon where he worked as a tea-boy, had not yet agreed on the amount of compensation he would receive. However, he revealed that had asked for the equivalent of $178,000--enough to purchase a fine home for his family in Turkey's impoverished east. The applicant apparently had overheard the woman telling her stylist of her plight and proposed what he believed would be a mutually beneficial arrangement. The officer denied the applicant, called the would-be recipient to the window, and gently explained to both parties that organ-selling is illegal in the United States. Before and after the interview, several of Istanbul's rich and powerful lobbied--fruitlessly, of course--for the applicant to receive a visa, suggesting implicitly that they view themselves above the law and regard such transactions as consistent with their understanding of benevolent patronage; after all, how else could their poor tea-boy afford a house? -------------- Should I Stay or Should I Go? -------------- ¶5. (SBU) A well-known Turkish writer applied in late January for a visa to travel in connection with the promotion of the English-language edition of her latest novel. The writer, who--like Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and Nobel prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk--had been cited with "insulting Turkish-ness" through a literary portrayal of an Armenian family's experience with the 1915 so-called "genocide"--said Dink's assassination on January 19 convinced her it was a good time not to be in Turkey. The prospect of an U.S. Congressional "Armenian Genocide Resolution" further fueled her desire to leave, but fear of threats from ultra-nationalist Turks in the United States had compelled her to sharply curtail her original itinerary. "Dink himself opposed such a resolution. He knew it would make things here worse, not better, and told me he would go and personally tell the Congress that no genocide occurred here--even though he knew the truth--if this would stop them from doing something so divisive." -------------- Minority Report -------------- ¶6. (SBU) In early February, a Turkish student seeking travel to Rochester, New York, to complete doctoral studies in economics learned that security processing (necessitated by a CLASS entry) would delay his return to the United States for up to 12 weeks. The applicant told the interviewing officer that, more than missing his US-resident wife and American-citizen child and the start of the new semester, he was deeply disappointed not to be able to leave Turkey before March. He explained he is Jewish and that he fears reprisals against minority communities here if the U.S. Congress passes an Armenian genocide resolution. "We're all countrymen until someone questions Turkey," he said. "Once that happens, the Turks begin to look for enemies in their midst, and we Jews always are first ones to be singled out and punished." JONES