As of Nov. 1, Turkey will introduce a new passport containing a chip to hold the carrier's personal information including their fingerprints and facial image, as part of the steps forward to visa-free travel for Turkey. However, Turkish citizens were not granted permission for visa free travel into to the Schengen countries by the end October as intended in the March 18 Turkish-European Union deal. According to Turkish officials, the Turkish-EU deal entered into a "natural death" phase and the deal will be automatically terminated unless the EU starts to implement visa liberalization, which is one of the key promises of the EU along with accelerating Turkey's EU membership talks.

Commenting on this issue last week, Turkey's EU Minister Ömer Çelik said if there are not any developments on visa-free travel by the end of the year, "the natural death" of both visa-free travel and the Readmission Agreement will occur. "If visa-free travel does not happen, the Readmission Agreement will also not come into effect. They are already behind the schedule, but if visa-free travel does not come into effect by the end of the year, the natural death of the process will occur." Çelik said on Oct 26. Reminding people that visa-free travel was a part of the Readmission Agreement between Turkey and the EU, Çelik said the anti-terror laws could not be changed.

The Turkish-EU deal in March began with Turkey's initiative and was primarily aimed at preventing a loss of life in the Aegean Sea, and statistics prove that there has been a significant drop in the number of illegal immigrants via the Aegean Sea. "Despite the fact that irregular migration in the Aegean is now under control, the EU does not seem keen on delivering on their promises," Minister Çavuşoğlu said regarding this matter.