The Transformation of Citizenship in Turkey: Understanding the Instrumentalization and Commercialization of Citizenship

In recent years, Turkey has emerged as a country of high migration inflows and outflows, and its citizenship-by-investment policy, which has been in place since 2017, has been in high demand: Turkey has become the country with the highest number of new citizens in the world. In addition, although overshadowed by this policy, officials and politicians have announced that they have naturalized around 110,000 Syrians based on a policy of citizenship by ability since 2016. On the other hand, approximately 3 million Syrians whom Turkey does not recognize as refugees by international law are currently living in the country under temporary protection status. Both citizenship-granting policies are carried out in a non-transparent manner and within the framework of a policy defined as exceptional/extraordinary in Turkish citizenship law, where the central authority has been given to the president by minor amendments to some articles of the relevant law. Turkey has not established separate programs for ability-based or investment-based citizenship acquisition but has partially established the necessary offices. There are no official and precise figures on how many people have become Turkish citizens through each practice. Turkey’s policies relate to domestic politics and the countries from which it receives migration. At the same time, these policies of Turkey, which has been sending regular and irregular migrants to European countries in various waves since the 1960s and which has been a candidate country to the EU since December 1999, will also impact the entire picture of EU migration.

With this paper, I aim to delve into the recent Turkish naturalization policies, particularly focusing on citizenship by investment and citizenship by ability. By examining these policies from a comparative perspective and considering their political and legal bases, I hope to make a contribution to the field of citizenship studies.