Understanding Turkish Citizenship through Investment: Legal Updates, Real Estate Opportunities, and Investor Awareness

Today, we will examine the official government decree covering citizenship through investment, Tomorrow the law regarding the revocation of acquired citizenship. In addition, we will revisit the cries of victims who have been deceived in this manner, quoting from high-reputation media sources.

We keep bringing up this topic repeatedly, but no matter how much we do, it seems insufficient, because we hear numerous rumors in the market. For instance, there are stories like someone’s uncle becoming a citizen for $200,000. Or, supposedly, a contractor of some project had to deposit $200,000 twice in a bank to get citizenship. There are absurd rumors like having connections in Ankara and getting the whole family citizenship for $30,000. We will discuss these ridiculous rumors.

Let’s start by examining the official government decree covering citizenship through investment.

From the link below, you can access the official document regarding citizenship acquisition through investment. However, we will share images of the relevant sections with our audience here and provide a translation and interpretation of these parts.

Link for Official Website Document of Obtaining Turkish Citizenship Through Investment Regulation

If you click on the link above, you will be directed to the official decree on citizenship acquisition through investment. And you will be greeted with such a title.

And the summary table of this title is actually as follows.

Reality, not all of us are legal experts, and even though I received help from our legal department while writing this article, I didn’t fully understand what the titles in the table exactly meant. More knowledge is never harmful, so let’s also leave a description of the headings in the table below.

Regulation: This refers to the specific regulation being discussed, which in this case is the “Turkish Citizenship Law Implementation Regulation.” This regulation outlines the rules and procedures for implementing the Turkish Citizenship Law.

Addition Date: This is the date when the regulation was added to a higher-level legal document or framework. In this case, it was added to the Presidential Regulation section on January 6, 2022. Official Gazette

Publication: The regulation was published in the Official Gazette (Resmî Gazete) on January 5, 2022, under the number 31711. The Official Gazette is where new laws, decrees, and legal changes in Turkey are officially published. Presidential Decree: This indicates the specific decree that brought about the change or addition to the regulation, which is Presidential Decree No. 5072. Council of Ministers Decision: This refers to a decision made by the Council of Ministers related to this regulation, dated February 11, 2010, and numbered 2010/139. This decision is likely foundational or directly relevant to the changes made in the regulation. Base Law Date and

Number: This provides information about the original law on which the regulation is based. The base law for this regulation was enacted on May 29, 2009, and is numbered 5901.

Publication in Official Gazette: This is the date and number of the Official Gazette in which the original law or previous versions of the regulation were published, which is April 6, 2010, under number 27544.

Düstur (Official Compilation): This refers to the official compilation where the regulation is recorded. It’s listed in the 5th Order, Volume 49 of Düstur, which is a formal collection of Turkish laws and regulations. If we are convinced of the authenticity of the document, both from its original file with a gov.tr extension and from its translation, let’s now proceed towards the reality of the $400,000.

If you go to the official website of the decree I mentioned above, you will see that the relevant decree is 29 pages long. You can find the paragraph I marked on page 7. Now let’s look at the English meaning of this Turkish text.

1. b) (Amended: OG-6/1/2022-31711-P.D-5072/1 art.) It is determined by the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change that a real estate property worth at least 400,000 US Dollars or its equivalent in foreign currency is purchased with the condition of a non-sale annotation in the land registry records for three years, or a real estate property on which condominium or floor easement is established, and at least 400,000 US Dollars or its equivalent in foreign currency is paid in cash, and a contract is drawn up by a notary with the condition that a pledge of non-transfer and abandonment will be annotated in the land registry for a period of three years, and the sale of the property is promised.

Now, let’s go to the last page of this decree and see how many times it has been updated

Let’s look at what this table means

This table shows the dates of enactment for the obtaning Turkish Citizenship Through Investment regulations that have added to or amended the regulation initially put into effect by the Council of Ministers’ decision dated 11/2/2010 and numbered 2010/139. Here’s an explanation of the table:

• Date and Number of the Decree Enacting the Amendment or Addition: This column lists the dates and decree numbers that brought the amendments or additions into effect.
• Changed Articles of the 2010/139 Regulation: This column specifies which articles of the original 2010/139 regulation were amended.
• Date of Entry into Force: This column shows when the amendments or additions officially came into force.

The specific entries in the table are as follows:

12/12/2016, Decree No. 2016/9061: Amended Article 20, effective from 12/1/2017.

13/3/2017, Decree No. 2017/10008: Amended Article 20, effective from 5/5/2017.

18/9/2018, Decree No. 106: Amended Article 20, effective from 19/9/2018.

6/12/2018, Decree No. 418: Amended Article 20, effective from 7/12/2018.

5/1/2022, Decree No. 5072: Amended Article 20, effective from 6/1/2022.

12/5/2022, Decree No. 5554: Amended the second paragraph of Article 20, clause (b), effective from 13/6/2022.

Amendment to clause (f) and the tenth paragraph of Article 20 on 13/5/2022.

This table provides a chronological overview of the changes made to the regulation since its initial enactment in 2010, highlighting the evolving nature of the legal framework.
Looking at the table, it appears that there have been updates to the decree in the years 2017, 2018, and 2022. To recall these updates:

• In 2018, the citizenship investment amount was reduced from $1,000,000 to $250,000.
• Most recently, in 2022, this amount was increased from $250,000 to $400,000.

Therefore, it should be reminded to those who say that $400,000 is too much for citizenship. The regulation of Obtaining Turkish Citizenship Through Investment cost used to be $1,000,000. It’s still feasible. As we mentioned in our previous articles, the cost of obtaining residency through investment was increased from $75,000 to $200,000, and we were very pleased with this. Those who believe in Turkey have gained.

Editor’s Comment,

First and foremost, I believe that all non-Turkish individuals who have obtained citizenship through real estate investment owe a debt of gratitude to the Turkish State and its citizens. While non-Turkish citizens of the world can pay $400,000 to both buy a property and `zobtain citizenship, Turkish citizens who already have Turkish citizenship cannot acquire an additional Turkish citizenship through investment even if they pay $400,000. Of course, Turkish citizens should also thank foreign nationals who invest in Turkey, as their investments undoubtedly contribute positively to the Turkish economy.

However, those unscrupulous individuals who engage in nothing but fraud, causing serious harm to both investors and the national economy, deceiving people, taking their money, or trying to obtain citizenship cheaply by deceiving the state, but ultimately losing themselves, should be reported to the relevant state authorities once they are identified. We at Estates Istanbul have always followed the law and decrees as they are, and this has led to our success. Our reliability in the Istanbul real estate sector is perhaps primarily due to this approach. Those who do not act in this manner always lose.

Turkey is a state of law, and its intelligence is much stronger than you might think. Therefore, we warn both foreign investors and those who make such illegal offers to foreign investors. Not only do we warn, but we will also do another good deed for you; tomorrow, we will examine the decree law regarding the revocation of acquired Turkish citizenship. Perhaps the audacity of those who engage in such activities stems from their ignorance. Continue to follow Estates Istanbul for accurate information and correct practices.

Please Don not hesitate to ask translation of Official Dcoument in other languages. ( English, Russian, Chinese )