Turkey to Grant Citizenship to 7,000 Highly Qualified Syrians

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The country's Interior Ministry’s Directorate General of Migration Management and the General Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs have been working on the issues for several months, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

Syria has been in the state of civil war for six years, with government forces fighting against both Syrian opposition groups and terrorist organizations. The war has forced many residents to search for shelter in the neighboring states, including Turkey, which has increased pressure on their economies.

According to official data from the Interior Ministry, the number of Syrians in Turkey is close to three million, 10 percent of them are living in a total of 26 refugee camps, and nearly two million of them are women and children.

A total of 216,340 people were granted Turkish citizenship between 2010 and 2017, according to the Interior Ministry data. Bulgarians, Syrians and Azerbaijanis topped the list of those granted citizenship in the last seven years. Some 12,000 Syrians were granted citizenship during this period, including 409 in the first half this year.