One of the signs of being a developed country is the lack of bureaucracy forced upon the citizens. Unfortunately, I have witnessed that Turkish Republic has taken a step backwards in this.
The latest issue that is forced upon the Turkish people is the mobile phone saga. If you have/buy a mobile phone abroad, you cannot simply put a SIM card in it and use it in Turkey. No! that would be too simple. You have jump several hoops to be able use your own mobile phone set:
- at the customs on your way back into the country, you need to get your passport stamped.
- you need the original receipt of purchase (as if I'm going to hold onto it forever). In the UK, you get a free phone with most contracts anyway. So, you don't have a purchase of receipt.
- you need to write a letter and photocopy several pages of your passport
- you then need to go to a shop in person with all these evidence so that they can unlock your phone.
What a load of rubbish!
Some of my friends claim that this is simply to decrease "terrorism" like everything else that the governments are hiding behind nowadays. You know that people are not going to like a decision you take so you find a "terrorism" angle to pass the legislation. However, this argument doesn't hold water either as you can freely walk into a shop and buy a pay-as-you-go SIM card with pre-allocated credit, which would be like heaven for those people that don't wanna be caught. By a hundred of these SIM cards, use them and throw them away as they run out of credit. What are the governement agencies going to intercept?
Anyhow, coming back to the original discussion. Another point that people argue is the fact that this is helping reduce the mobiles being stolen. So, the government does not truest its own police force to reduce this crime? And, asking the citizens to jump hoops?
Bottomline is I couldn't give my old mobile phone to my mum so that she can use it for emergencies.
