Despite their low numbers compared to the number of non-nationalized Turkish voters, the small percentage needed for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – who enjoyed citizenship and naturalization rights – to win over his opponent, opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, gave his votes weight over which the parties argue.
Nationalist parties, including the “Victory” and “Justice” parties, presidential candidate Kamal Kılıçdaroğlu, lined up to call for the deportation of refugees to their countries. For reasons related to their intellectual and political affiliations, changing identity and demographics, in addition to the fact that they believe that Turks are more deserving of the employment opportunities that refugees have obtained.
Refugee and naturalized numbers
• There is great disagreement in the announced figures of the number of naturalized citizens who have the right to vote, as the opposition questioned the figures announced by the Ministry of the Interior, and stated that the percentage of new voters who were not born in the country was higher than had been announced.
• According to official figures, 3,500,000 Syrian refugees live in Turkey, distributed in the cities, and 550,000 live in Istanbul alone, and most of the refugees live in the border cities with Syria; In Gaziantep, Hatay and Sanliurfa there are 1.2 million, and a quarter of a million live in Adana and Mersin.
• Among the Syrian refugees, around 200,000 have acquired Turkish nationality, while 550,000 Syrians have returned to opposition-held areas in northern Syria.
stay vote
Political science professor Khairy Korbash puts the number of people naturalized under the rule of the Justice and Development Party – in power since 2002 – at “hundreds of thousands of foreigners”, and the pace of naturalization has accelerated after the influx of millions of Syrians entering the country, especially since it is possible to apply for citizenship after 5 years of residence.
Korbash added, to Sky News Arabia, that the majority of naturalized people who have obtained the right to vote “represent an electoral reservoir for the ruling party, because their naturalization was facilitated at the time, and therefore they vote for the President Erdogan out of gratitude, and because they know that the guarantee for them is the survival of the current regime.”
The rhetoric of the parties calling for the expulsion of the refugees arouses the fears of these naturalized people. because they have parents who have not obtained nationality; Their existence is therefore threatened, as Korbash explains.
Ten-year proposal
Umit Ozdaa, leader of the Victory Party, whose platform is based on deporting refugees, said the party would submit a bill to parliament demanding that newly granted citizenship not be granted the right to vote for a period of 10 years.
He attributed this to the fact that “Turkey is under covert occupation, and to a process of change in the demographic composition of Turkish cities, as some cities have become more Syrian than Turkish due to Syrians’ reliance on them”.
Naturalized voting conditions
• According to the law, a foreigner of Turkish nationality has the right to participate in the elections only one year after the date of his naturalization.
• Laws require foreigners to reside in Turkey for 5 years to apply for citizenship.
• The Council of Ministers has the right to grant citizenship especially to businessmen, investors, artists, economists, thinkers and those who contribute to the development of agriculture, commerce, industry, art and sports, as well as to those with special scientific abilities and significant innovations.
Fears of withdrawal of nationality
Political analyst Ufuk Oras doubts the possibility that the number of naturalized people affects the results of the elections and considers that those who say the contrary “create an unrealistic atmosphere”.
As to whether the opposition’s threats to withdraw citizenship from Syrians are serious, Oras stressed that “it is not possible to restore acquired rights, and elections can be seen as a basis for denouncing such unlawful prosecutions”.
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