Turkmen students believe that this decision is primarily targeted against them because Turkmenistan is experiencing serious problems with money transfers overseas whereas students from other countries are not confronted with these issues.
Because of serious restrictions imposed on money transfers both via banks and Western Union study-abroad students are unable to pay tuition fees on time.
Several students reported to “Chronicles of Turkmenistan separately from each other that Turkey’s Migration Office deliberately checks residence registration of Turkmen students. In early February several students were fined for 70 liras for delaying their residence registration. Even those who met all the requirements were fined because as a result of the glitch in the Migration Office’s software the data had not been recorded.
In the meantime students intend to hire an attorney to dispute the fines but the payment problem depends on Turkmenistan and, most likely, will not be resolved shortly.
Paying tuition fees presents a big challenge for Turkmen nationals doing a course of study abroad. For this reason many students had to drop out of Universities.
According to Hürryiet, in the 2019-2020 academic year 18.016 students from Turkmenistan were enrolled in Turkish educational establishments.
Source: Chronicles of Turkmenistan