Turkey’s Interior Minister Süleyman Söyliu revealed that the country has reached agreements with Hungary and France to print their biometric passports, with 250,000 copies of the document to be printed for Hungary within a year.
Soylu made the revelation during a press conference in the capital Ankara to explain the introduction of Turkey’s new biometric passports, Turkish daily Hürriyet reported.
Turkish passports were previously printed by a European country that could not keep up with demand due to a shortage of chips at some point during the coronavirus pandemic, the publication noted.
During a press conference, the official also showed a sample copy of the new Turkish passports, saying they have 27 security features, small and large embedded chips and design features that highlight the country’s tourism and cultural assets.
“On the middle pages there is a picture of the Hagia Sophia mosque.” There are also pictures of other landmarks of the country, such as Canakkale Bridge, Camluja Mosque, Ishaq Pasha Palace and the famous houses of the Black Sea province of Amasya,” Soylü said.
The minister added that about 1.6 million of the new passports have already been produced. The new production unit recently opened in Turkey has a huge capacity, being able to issue over a million passports in just one day, if needed.
Apart from the passport, Soylu said the government has also made good progress in issuing national ID cards with an embedded chip, delivering about 77 million of them since 2018, including 6.7 million since the beginning of 2022. During this period chip supply challenges have affected the issuance of many digital IDs around the world.
Photo by Atypeek Dgn:
