Montenegro’s Prime Minister, Milojko Spajic, delivers a speech at an investment conference in Lustica, Montenegro, October 14, 2025. Photo: EPA/BORIS PEJOVIC.
Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajic announced on Sunday that his country intends to halt its visa-free regime for Turkish citizens, which allows them to stay for 90 days without a visa.
“Under an urgent procedure, we will make a decision on the temporary suspension of the visa-free regime for Turkish nationals,” Spajic wrote on X on Sunday.
The decision follows an incident in a nightclub in Zabjelo, which resulted in the detention of 45 people. Two of them, a Turkish citizen and an Azerbajiani citizen, were later arrested for behaviour that resulted in several people being injured.
“During the previous night, police officers carried out a control of the legality of the stay of the detained foreign citizens, during which, due to the irregularities identified, appropriate measures were taken,” the police said in a statement.
Police also said that seven misdemeanour warrants were issued for violating the Law on Foreigners, eight foreign citizens were ordered to leave Montenegro and two others were ordered to remain at a specific address and report regularly to the police until the completion of their proceedings.
The small Adriatic country, whose total population is 623,000, has seen a sharp increase in the number of Turkish residents and businesses. According to the latest statistics, published on September 30, 13,308 Turkish citizens currently reside in Montenegro.
The Montenegrin Statistical Office says there are 24,278 foreign businesses in Montenegro. of which 6,866, or 28.3 per cent, are owned by Turkish citizens. Turkish tourists also constitute an important element in Montenegro’s tourism industry.
In 2024, 2,606,854 arrivals and 15,594,299 overnights were registered in the country. In 2024, the largest number were visitors from Serbia (23.5 per cent), followed by Russia (18.3 per cent), Bosnia (8.4 per cent), Turkey (4.9 per cent), Germany (4.7 per cent), Ukraine (4.3 per cent), and Britain (3.8 per cent).
The EU has been pressuring Western Balkan countries, including Montenegro, to abolish visa-free regimes for Turkish citizens, in order to harmonise their visa regimes with those of EU member states. Turkish citizens need a visa to enter the EU.
To align its legislation with the EU acquis, Montenegro introduced visa requirements for residents of the United Arab Emirates, Cuba and Ecuador in January, April and May 2023 respectively.
“However, there are 12 countries which are visa free for Montenegro, but not for the EU, of which seven enjoy permanent visa exemption (Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Kuwait, Qatar, Russia, Turkey) and five have a seasonal visa waiver to enter Montenegro for touristic reasons between April and October (Armenia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan),” the EU wrote in its country report in 2023.
The Turkish government in a statement said it had contacted the Montenegrin authorities following “several distressing developments … in Montenegro, which affected our citizens as well”. The statement did not refer to the decision of the Montenegrin government to end the visa-free regime.
