Italian journalist: 'More than half of all citizenship sales worldwide are from Turkey'

Italian journalist Marco D'eramo, in an article published on December 15 in the UK's long-standing political magazine New Left Review, argued that "more than half of the citizenship sales carried out worldwide are made from Turkey."

IRAQI, AFGHAN, PALESTINIAN AND EGYPTIAN NATIONALS

The article stated that Turkey is among the world's 20 largest economies and that "Istanbul offers excellent living conditions for wealthy expatriates."

The analysis noted that for the citizenship-by-investment program, also known as the "golden visa," applications for a Turkish passport initially came primarily from Iraqi, Afghan, Palestinian, and Egyptian nationals. It was stated that with the pandemic and Russia's declaration of war, Ukrainian and Pakistani citizens have also joined these groups.

EMPHASIS ON DEVALUATION OF THE TURKISH LIRA

D'eramo wrote that wealthy Iranians also show great interest in Turkey's "golden visa" program. It was pointed out that the fact that Iranians can enter Turkey without a visa, combined with the devaluation of the Turkish Lira, played a significant role in this. It was claimed that Iranians purchase an average of 10 thousand homes in Turkey annually.

According to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), Russians purchased the most homes in November. In the data published on December 15, it was reported that Russian citizens purchased 637 homes, Iranians 234, Ukrainians 128, and Kazakhstani citizens 117.

The journalist also recalled that Turkey received 6 billion euros in funding from the European Union to prevent the passage of migrants, particularly those of Syrian and Afghan nationality, to Europe.

In his article, D'eramo frequently referred to the study titled The Golden Passport, published in September by academic Kristin Surak, who conducts research on citizenship sales. However, the journalist did not provide an explicit source for where he obtained the data regarding Turkey.