The Netherlands did not grant a visa to the director and artist Kutluğ Ataman, deemed worthy of the Royal Award of Honor. Ataman shared the incident on his Twitter account.
With this incident, a new one has been added to the recent visa crises.
The director said, “I received an award from the Kingdom of Netherlands for my “contribution to European culture” (don’t ask what is the contribution, I’m just an artist). It was necessary to go to the Netherlands. They did not give me a visa.’’
Ataman criticized the situation by saying (on Twitter), “On this occasion, I realized that I was contributing to European culture from outside.” The Consulate General of the Netherlands in Istanbul responded to the tweet which was viewed 1.3 million times. Asking the director to send an e-mail and the consulate wrote that the process would be checked again. Ataman replied that he would send the e-mail.
