Turkey Revokes Citizenship of More Than 6,000 Investors and Their Family Members

More than 6,000 people in Turkey have lost citizenship obtained through investment. The reasons include manipulation of property valuations, irregularities in transactions and, in some cases, concerns raised by security services, according to IMI Daily.

How Turkish Citizenship Is Revoked

Property Purchase Fraud

Most cases are linked to fraudulent practices involving property purchases. Inspectors identified 1,150 participants in the program who had carried out collusive or irregular transactions. Their investment eligibility certificates were cancelled. As a result, 5,391 people, including the investors themselves and their family members, lost Turkish citizenship.

Such decisions are made under Article 31 of Law No. 5901. It provides for the cancellation of citizenship if an applicant submitted false information or concealed material facts when obtaining it. Under Article 32, the measure also applies to spouses and children who acquired Turkish citizenship together with the principal applicant.

Public Order and Security

Another 263 applicants came under scrutiny by the police and the National Intelligence Organization after naturalization. Their status was withdrawn on public order and national security grounds. Including spouses and children, the measure affected 743 people. They have not been accused of fraud. In these cases, the authorities applied Article 40, which provides for the withdrawal of citizenship if it is subsequently established that the necessary conditions for obtaining it were not met.

What Happens to an Investor’s Property

In total, 6,134 foreign nationals have lost Turkish citizenship following the inspections. The process accelerated significantly in 2026: since February 11, the cancellation of investment eligibility certificates has affected 443 investors and 1,358 people when their spouses and children are included. Another seven people lost citizenship on security grounds.

This changes an investor’s legal status: they revert to foreigner status, while their right to continue residing in the country is governed by immigration law. The authorities may require them to dispose of their assets in Turkey, giving the owner one year to do so. If the property remains unsold after that period, the state will sell it and transfer the proceeds to the former owner’s account.

Illegal Acquisition of Turkish Citizenship

The scale of the violations is also reflected in a new law enforcement operation announced by Justice Minister Akın Gürlek. The case involves a scheme for illegally obtaining citizenship through investment and spans several regions of the country. The investigation is being conducted by the organized crime unit of the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Arrest warrants were issued for 90 suspects, and 72 people were detained across 16 provinces. Law enforcement authorities also seized 1,045 properties, a hotel in Bodrum, 15 vehicles and a yacht, and froze 10 bank accounts. Seven companies were placed under court-appointed trustees.

Participants in the scheme failed to make approximately TRY 2.5 billion ($52.6 million) in investments required under the program. The minister also announced that citizenship revocation proceedings had begun against 687 people linked to the case. The authorities have not clarified whether they are included in the overall figures resulting from inspections of the investment program.

Turkey’s Interior Ministry emphasizes that the violations involved attempts to forge documents before applications were submitted. The authorities found no evidence of misconduct or negligence by employees of the General Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs.

Turkey Changes Its Property Valuation System

Turkish authorities have tightened controls over the valuation of real estate purchased for citizenship purposes. Since March 4, 2024, valuation reports for participants in the investment program have been prepared exclusively by Gayrimenkul Değerleme A.Ş. (GEDAŞ), a company owned by Turkey’s Housing Development Administration (TOKİ). Private valuers licensed by the Capital Markets Board (SPK) continue to work on other property transactions involving foreign nationals but no longer participate in citizenship applications.

The procedure for confirming the value of investments also changed on December 9, 2024. A special certificate is now generated internally on the basis of a GEDAŞ valuation report and transmitted directly to the land registry system. Paper documents are not accepted for this purpose.

Applicants therefore no longer receive the document confirming the investment amount and cannot submit it independently as part of a citizenship application. The new system eliminates the previous method of using forged or inflated valuations.

Expert Views

CIP Turkey co-founder Aran Hawker links the latest detentions to an earlier investigation. In September last year, the authorities identified violations involving 451 investors. Information obtained at the time helped investigators identify other participants in the scheme and determine how the illegal transactions were carried out.

Hawker notes that the violations date back to a period when purchasing property worth at least $250,000 was sufficient to qualify for Turkish citizenship. This threshold was in place from September 2018 until June 2022, when it was raised to $400,000. Hawker believes the authorities have since closed the loopholes exploited by those involved and that similar fraud is no longer possible under the current system.

CIP Turkey co-founder Taymour Polding views the inspections as a warning to those attempting to circumvent the program’s requirements. At the same time, he notes that the overwhelming majority of participants comply with the rules, which is important for the program’s long-term viability.

Conclusion

London School of Economics researcher Kristin Surak notes that by the end of 2019, more than 5,000 investors had obtained citizenship, while as many as 9,000 applications were still pending. Comprehensive official statistics for subsequent years have not been published, with mainly private estimates available. It is therefore impossible to determine what share of all program participants is represented by the 6,134 people who have lost citizenship. Inspections are continuing, and Aran Hawker expects further cases involving violations committed in previous years.

International Investment analysts note that the entry thresholds for Turkey’s real estate market for those seeking citizenship or residence permits have risen, while risks for investors have also increased. Meeting the formal requirements when obtaining a passport does not rule out subsequent inspections. National security remains the least specific ground for revocation, as the category is open to relatively broad interpretation. As a result, an investor may lose Turkish citizenship and be required to sell assets within a limited period, potentially on unfavorable terms.

The new control system reduces opportunities to manipulate property valuations. At the same time, recent developments make legal due diligence, verification of a property’s actual value and full compliance with all requirements of Turkey’s citizenship-by-investment program increasingly important.