Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees in Turkey have obtained Turkish citizenship over the past years.
But many today live with a sense of instability and fear of the results of the upcoming Turkish presidential elections.
And the decisions that restrict the residency of Syrians, especially after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Ankara was preparing a project that would allow the voluntary return of one million Syrians to their country.
This came during his participation, via a video message, in the ceremony of handing over brick houses in Idlib, Syria, in which Turkish Interior Minister Suleiman Soylu participated.
President Erdogan noted that “about 500,000 Syrians have returned to the safe areas that Turkey has provided since launching its operations in Syria in 2016.”
At the time, he added, “We are preparing for a new project that will allow the voluntary return of one million of our Syrian brothers who are hosting them in our country.”
In an exclusive interview with the young man, Ahmed Sawas, a Syrian from Homs, he obtained Turkish citizenship three years ago, as he was a student of electronic engineering at Samsun University in Turkey.
He says, “After my graduation, although I obtained Turkish citizenship, this was not enough for me to guarantee my future and my life, and I was living with daily anxiety, especially since there were many of my friends.
He added, “The citizenship was withdrawn from them and they were deported as he describes and continues from here. I decided to escape to secure my life and I booked a flight ticket to Serbia without a visa, but I was forced to go back and forth in order to make sure I would return to Turkey.”
Young Ahmed recalls that his trip was completely fraught with tension and danger, as he had to hide all his personal papers after arriving in Serbia, including a passport, identity card, and others.
And because if the Serbian authorities knew the reason, he would destroy everything he had been planning for years and everything he was showing in Turkey, and according to his description, if the Serbian police knew, he would be informed of the Turkish authorities, and this would expose him to withdrawing his citizenship and possibly deporting him.
The most difficult and dangerous point was across the border between Serbia and Hungary, and if he was caught, he would be deported to Serbia.
As he describes, he was with a group of people from different countries and they were arrested dozens of times, according to his description, and they are still trying to reach Europe.
Ahmed describes that his trip was for two weeks, because there was a great emphasis on guard patrols, trained police dogs and thermal cameras, which made the trip risky and difficult, and after difficult attempts and staying for long hours in the forests and among the sewage water, the young Ahmed managed to reach Austria, which he was planning to reach to her
As for the cost of the trip, he says, “There are different prices. If the person wants to reach Austria only, it is completely different, and if it is required to reach the Netherlands via Germany, the amount will be greater.
The young Ahmed paid 4000 US dollars, but it is mentioned that it decreases according to the bazaar and the smuggler, and Austria is the easiest country to smuggle from Serbia.
After arriving there, he continues as if he was tied and became free, according to what he described his feeling after anxiety, tension and fear, and his choice to give up Turkish citizenship and remain with his Syrian mother nationality.
The number of Syrians who obtained Turkish citizenship today amounts to nearly 210,000 11 years ago, according to estimates dating back to the current June of the Turkish Interior Minister, Suleiman Soylu.
In an interview with Samar, who refused to reveal her full name for fear of withdrawing her file in his last stage of “Turkish citizenship,” she says: “Today I am in the last stage of obtaining Turkish citizenship, and this means my exit from Turkey is approaching.” After obtaining it, she plans to arrange her search trip. For a safer country for her and her children, as she wants to secure a safe future life for them.
She says, “The recent Turkish decisions, especially with regard to normalization with the Syrian regime and the approaching Turkish elections, are a fear and a nightmare for me and my children that I am wanted by the Syrian regime because I worked as an activist in my country, Homs previously.”
She added, “I recently heard that the Turkish government is planning to return the Syrians to experimental areas, including the two cities of Homs,” and continues about the future that she plans for, as she is the only father and mother of her two daughters, Lana and Lynn, especially after her husband’s arrest since 2013, as she was an activist and says, “I was the reason at that time. Maybe but I had made a vow to myself to secure the best future for my children.
After obtaining citizenship within a very short period of time, she plans to leave for Norway based on Turkish citizenship, and is constantly looking for ways to get there.
She continues her talk that what makes her plan to leave, even though she is in the final stage of obtaining Turkish citizenship, is the continuous racist discourse by the people and even Turkish children towards her children, which made them have a bad psychological state, refusing to complete their education because they are Syrians.
She says, “The Turkish people, and even the government, do not differentiate with racism, rhetoric and persistent hatred between a Syrian who holds citizenship and a Syrian who does not, but they address us as (Surili), and this phrase that we have heard everywhere, and that we feel it to a lesser degree than them because we are only Syrians.” “Even though I will get citizenship soon, I feel that I am still a foreigner in this country.”
The current conditions in Turkey, including the high cost of living, cases of racism and harassment of Syrians, push many of them who hold citizenship to take smuggling routes in the hope of a safe and stable haven.
In an interview with Fahd Al-Jabri from the city of Manbij, he says, “I applied for Turkish citizenship a year ago, because I graduated from Gaziantep University, the branch of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, and I mastered the Turkish language very well, and I have more than good social relations with the Turks, but I had applied through The UNHCR program in Turkey years ago and the interview was conducted in Ankara in 2016 and then I forgot about it because resettlement to a third country takes a lot of time.
He added, “Before graduating from Gaziantep University in 2021, I was surprised by a call by a number that ends with the number 7000, and this number is known among those who have resettlement files in Turkey to a third country with the number (dream) because the interview is scheduled with them or the country is specified, and the employee told me through his contact with me that he Your file was submitted to the Netherlands and he wanted an answer of my acceptance or refusal to submit the file and for the first moment I was nervous because I had applied for Turkish citizenship only one month ago by the Immigration Department in Gaziantep. Years in Turkey because I learned the language and graduated and became the gates of citizenship, but at that moment I was forced to make the decision from my mind and not my heart because this opportunity will not be compensated for me and thousands of Syrians dream of it. next September.
He continues to talk about sadness that is still in his heart, because after a quest for eight years after entering Turkey and learning the language, integration and graduation, but when he was trying to apply for work with Turkish companies, he was rejected because he is Syrian, and the Turkish youth is preferred over him despite his great experience in this field more than the Turkish youth. One of the first in his class among the Turkish youth and continues by saying, “Although I was at the gates of Turkish citizenship, but I refused it because I know that you will not be a guarantor for me to complete my life safely. A country that threatens us every day with new statements and parties whose concern has become the file of the Syrians and a people who did not accept us and the racism we are used to every morning and evening and everywhere and continues. Entry to Europe, or they are now unemployed and are treated as Syrians despite having obtained the citizenship of the Turkish country
A Turkish passport holder can enter 77 countries around the world without the need to obtain an entry visa, and the holder can travel to 33 countries and automatically obtain a visa upon arrival at the airport.
According to the “Turkish Citizenship Law” No. 5901, it is allowed to renounce Turkish citizenship in order to obtain another nationality, at the request of the person concerned.
Obtaining Turkish citizenship requires that he be mature, have the ability to distinguish, have convincing indications for obtaining the citizenship of the other country, not be criminally wanted because of a crime or military service, and not have any financial or penal restrictions.
Turkish citizenship is lost by a decision of the competent authority for those who are proven to have committed acts harmful to the state, and it is included in Turkish law under Article 29 of the Citizenship Law.
It is worth noting that the proportion of Syrian refugees reached 8.25 percent of the proportion of refugees globally until the end of 2019, making Syria the first country of origin for refugees since 2014.
A recent report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees stated that the number of Syrian refugees has reached about 6.6 million refugees distributed in 126 countries, and 83 percent of Syrian refugees are concentrated in the Arab countries and the Syrian neighbourhood.
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