Can Turkish Citizenship Be Revoked? Cancellation, Withdrawal and Deprivation Explained

Turkish citizenship that was acquired by naturalisation can be cancelled if it was obtained through a false statement or by concealing important facts on which the acquisition was based (Turkish Citizenship Law No. 5901, Art. 31). The cancellation also applies to a spouse and children who became citizens through that person, and the authorities may require assets in Turkey to be liquidated within one year. Separately, citizenship can be withdrawn by presidential decision for a short list of acts against the State, and a decision granting citizenship can be withdrawn if it later emerges that the legal conditions were never met. Each of these decisions can be challenged before the administrative courts.

This guide explains the different ways citizenship can be lost against a person's will, who is at risk, what the consequences are, how to respond to an investigation, and how the decisions are challenged. It is aimed in particular at people who became citizens through investment, marriage or residence.

• Three involuntary routes: cancellation (Art. 31), withdrawal of the decision (Art. 40), and deprivation (Art. 29).
• Cancellation ground: false statement, or concealment of important matters forming the basis of acquisition.
• Who decides: the authority that granted citizenship (Art. 31).
• Effect: from the date of the cancellation decision; extends to spouse and children who acquired citizenship through the person (Art. 32).
• Assets: liquidation within one year may be ordered; deferred if the decision is challenged in court (Art. 33).
• Deprivation: by decision of the President, for listed acts; personal, without effect on spouse and children (Art. 29–30).
• Remedy: annulment action before the administrative court within 60 days.
• Citizens by birth cannot have citizenship "cancelled" under Article 31; that provision concerns acquisition decisions.

Legal status of this guide. It reflects the Turkish Citizenship Law (No. 5901) as currently in force. Conditions attached to citizenship by investment — holding periods, annotations, valuation — are set by the implementing regulation and have been amended several times. Last updated: October 2026.

In this guide

• How Turkish citizenship can be lost
• Cancellation for false statement or concealment
• What counts — typical situations
• Effects on the person, the family and assets
• Withdrawal of the decision (Art. 40)
• Deprivation of citizenship (Art. 29)
• Citizenship by investment: specific risks
• Citizenship by marriage: specific risks
• Investigation and notification
• Challenging the decision
• Status after loss
• Frequently asked questions

How Turkish citizenship can be lost

Turkish citizenship is lost by decision of the competent authority or by exercising a right of choice (Art. 23). Loss by decision of the authority takes place through renunciation, deprivation, or cancellation of naturalisation (Art. 24).

Route	Voluntary?	Ground	Who decides	Basis
Renunciation (çıkma)	Yes	Application by a person who has or will have another citizenship	Ministry of Interior	Art. 25–28
Right of choice	Yes	Listed cases, within three years of reaching majority	—	Art. 34
Cancellation (iptal)	No	False statement or concealment of important matters in acquiring citizenship	The authority that made the acquisition decision	Art. 31–33
Withdrawal (geri alma)	No	Decision made without the legal conditions being met, or in duplicate	The administration	Art. 40
Deprivation (kaybettirme)	No	Listed acts against the State	The President	Art. 29–30

Voluntary renunciation and its consequences, including the Blue Card, are covered in the Blue Card in Turkey. This guide deals with the three involuntary routes.

Cancellation for false statement or concealment

Article 31 provides that a decision on the acquisition of Turkish citizenship is cancelled by the authority that made it if it came about as a result of the person's false statement or concealment of important matters constituting the basis for acquiring citizenship.

The elements:

• An acquisition decision. The provision concerns citizenship acquired by decision of the competent authority — the general route, marriage, the exceptional routes including investment, and re-acquisition. A person who is a citizen by birth through descent is not within it.
• A false statement or concealment. An untrue declaration, a forged or misleading document, or silence about a fact the applicant was required to disclose.
• Importance and causation. The matter must be one "constituting the basis" of the acquisition — something that, had it been known, would have led to refusal. A trivial inaccuracy with no bearing on the conditions does not qualify.
• The person's own conduct. The falsity must be attributable to the applicant. An error by the administration is dealt with under Article 40, not Article 31.
• No time limit is stated in the provision. Cancellation can follow years after naturalisation.

What counts — typical situations

• Marriage that was not genuine. Citizenship under Article 16 requires that the spouses live in family unity. If the marriage was a formality entered into for citizenship and this was concealed, the decision can be cancelled. A genuine marriage that later broke down is different: a person who acquired citizenship through marriage keeps it even if the marriage is declared void, provided they acted in good faith (Art. 16(3)).
• False identity or nationality; concealment of a previous name, another citizenship, or a previous application under a different identity.
• Concealed criminal record or pending proceedings in Turkey or abroad, where good moral character and the absence of a public order obstacle are conditions.
• Forged or misleading documents — civil status records, residence history, income, language or education certificates.
• Investment that was not what it appeared: a valuation report inflated to reach the threshold; a purchase price returned to the buyer after registration; a property that had already been used for another applicant's citizenship; funds not actually brought in as required; a sham company or employment record.
• Residence that did not exist — permits obtained on fictitious addresses, or long absences concealed.

Many of these arise from the acts of intermediaries — agents who arranged valuations, documents or addresses. Citizenship is nonetheless obtained on the applicant's signed declarations, and the consequences fall on the applicant.

Effects on the person, the family and assets

• From the date of the decision. The cancellation takes effect from the date of the cancellation decision (Art. 32) — it is not retroactive to the date of acquisition. Acts done as a citizen in the meantime are not undone merely because of the cancellation.
• Spouse and children. The cancellation decision also applies to the spouse and children who acquired Turkish citizenship in connection with the person concerned (Art. 32). A spouse or child who is a citizen on an independent basis — by birth to another Turkish parent, or by their own separate naturalisation — is not affected on that account.
• Treated as a foreigner. The person becomes subject to the legislation on foreigners.
• Liquidation of assets. Where liquidation of the person's assets is considered necessary, this is stated in the cancellation decision. The person must liquidate their assets in Turkey within one year at the latest; otherwise the assets are sold by the Treasury and the proceeds deposited in their name in a public bank (Art. 33(1)).
• Stay of liquidation. If the person challenges the cancellation decision in court, the liquidation of assets is left until the end of the case (Art. 33(2)).
• Statelessness. A person who gave up their previous nationality to become Turkish may be left without any. Turkish law contains a status for stateless persons; see stateless persons in Turkey.
• Criminal exposure. Where forged documents or false declarations to officials were used, criminal proceedings may run alongside.

Withdrawal of the decision (Art. 40)

Decisions on the acquisition or loss of Turkish citizenship are withdrawn if it is later understood that they were made before the legal conditions had been fulfilled, or in duplicate (Art. 40). This is the general administrative-law power to correct an unlawful act, applied to citizenship.

The difference from cancellation is the source of the defect. Article 31 answers the applicant's dishonesty; Article 40 answers an error in the decision itself — for example, a required period had not been completed, a necessary approval was missing, or the same person was naturalised twice. Clerical mistakes and omissions that do not go to the conditions are corrected or completed by a separate decision (Art. 39).

Because withdrawal can affect a person who acted in good faith and has built a life as a citizen, arguments based on legitimate expectation, legal certainty and the lapse of time carry weight in court, and the general rule that an unlawful beneficial act can be withdrawn only within the litigation period — unless it was obtained by fraud or is manifestly unlawful — is regularly invoked.

Deprivation of citizenship (Art. 29)

The citizenship of persons who are established by official authorities to have engaged in the following acts may be withdrawn by decision of the President (Art. 29(1)):

• being in any service of a foreign state that is contrary to the interests of Turkey and not leaving it of their own accord, despite being notified to do so — abroad by diplomatic missions, in Turkey by the local administrative authorities — within an appropriate period of not less than three months;
• continuing voluntarily to work in any service of a state that is at war with Turkey, without the President's permission;
• voluntarily performing military service for a foreign state without permission.

A further ground was added in 2017 (Art. 29(2)): citizens who are under investigation or prosecution for specified offences against the State — the offences listed in Articles 302, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314 and 315 of the Penal Code — and who cannot be reached because they are abroad are reported to the Ministry within one month of the prosecutor or the court learning of this. If they do not return within three months of a call to return published by the Ministry in the Official Gazette, their citizenship may be withdrawn by presidential decision.

Deprivation differs from cancellation in three respects:

• it applies to all citizens, including citizens by birth;
• it takes effect from the date the presidential decision is published in the Official Gazette (Art. 30(1)), and publication counts as notification (Art. 41);
• it is personal: it does not affect the person's spouse and children (Art. 30(2)).

A person whose citizenship was withdrawn under Article 29 may reacquire it by presidential decision after three years' residence in Turkey, provided there is no national security obstacle (Art. 14).

Citizenship by investment: specific risks

Citizenship acquired exceptionally on the basis of an investment (Art. 12(1)(b)) is granted on declarations about a specific asset and specific funds. The areas that give rise to later problems:

• The no-sale period. Real estate used for citizenship is registered with an annotation that it will not be sold for three years. Sale or transfer in breach of the undertaking, or arrangements that in substance return the property or the price to the seller, undermine the basis of the acquisition.
• Valuation. The threshold must be met by the real value. A report that overstated the value, obtained with the applicant's knowledge, is a false document.
• Source and route of funds. The rules require the price to be paid through the banking system, with foreign currency converted as prescribed and documented.
• Re-used property. A property previously used for another citizenship application, or bought back from a recent foreign owner contrary to the rules, does not qualify.
• Bank deposit, bond and fund routes carry their own holding periods.
• Dependants. The spouse and children who acquired citizenship with the investor fall with the investor's decision (Art. 32).

Keep the complete file — title deeds, valuation, bank receipts, currency certificates, the certificate of conformity — permanently. If you are approaching the end of the holding period and intend to sell, have the conditions checked first. See also can foreigners buy property in Turkey?

Citizenship by marriage: specific risks

• The decisive facts are those at the time of the application and the decision: a continuing marriage of at least three years, family unity, no conduct incompatible with the marriage.
• Divorce after naturalisation is not a ground for cancellation in itself. What matters is whether the declarations made in the application were true when made.
• Indicators the authorities rely on: spouses who never shared an address; a divorce filed immediately after the decision; a subsequent marriage to a person from the applicant's home country; statements by the former spouse; evidence of payment.
• Good faith. The statutory protection in Article 16(3) — retention of citizenship where the marriage is annulled, if the person was in good faith — shows the legislature's intention: citizenship is lost for dishonesty, not for the failure of a marriage.

How genuineness is investigated is described in marriage of convenience investigations in Turkey.

Investigation and notification

• How it starts. A report by a former spouse or business partner; a criminal investigation into an agent or a valuation company that exposes a batch of files; a routine check on a later application by a family member; discrepancies noticed by another authority.
• Information gathering. Public bodies must provide information and documents for citizenship investigations without delay (Art. 38). You may be invited to give a statement or to submit documents.
• Responding. Treat the first letter seriously. Provide a reasoned written response with documents; do not ignore it and do not submit new documents you cannot stand behind. Inconsistent explanations are used against the applicant.
• Notification. Decisions on the acquisition and loss of citizenship are notified to the person concerned and to the application authorities (Art. 41). Keep your registered address current: a decision validly served at an old address still starts the time limit.
• Dependants should be advised separately; their position may differ.

Challenging the decision

1. Time limit. An annulment action must be brought within 60 days of written notification (Law No. 2577, Art. 7). For deprivation, the period runs from publication in the Official Gazette.
2. Court. Decisions of the Ministry of Interior are challenged before the administrative courts — as a rule in Ankara. Presidential decisions are challenged before the Council of State as court of first instance.
3. Stay of execution. Request it in the petition: loss of citizenship causes harm that is difficult to repair. For cancellation, the law itself defers liquidation of assets until the end of the case (Art. 33(2)).
4. What the court examines. For cancellation: whether there was in fact a false statement or concealment; whether it concerned a matter forming the basis of acquisition; whether it is attributable to the applicant; and whether the decision is reasoned and based on evidence. For withdrawal: whether the conditions were really lacking, and whether legal certainty and the passage of time bar withdrawal. For deprivation: whether the statutory acts and procedure — notification, the period granted, the call to return — are established.
5. Evidence. The complete naturalisation file; proof that the declarations were true — for marriage, evidence of the shared life at the relevant time; for investment, the bank and registry records; evidence of what the applicant knew where an intermediary acted.
6. Further remedies. After ordinary remedies, an individual application to the Constitutional Court. The right to citizenship and the prohibition on arbitrary deprivation are protected by Article 66 of the Constitution, which provides that no Turk shall be deprived of citizenship unless they commit an act incompatible with loyalty to the homeland, and that judicial review may not be denied against decisions on deprivation.

Received a letter questioning your citizenship file, or a cancellation decision? Send the document and its date, and tell us how you acquired citizenship. Message Yayla Law on WhatsApp or use the contact form. The response to the first enquiry often determines what follows.

Status after loss

• Residence. A former citizen needs a lawful basis of stay as a foreigner: a residence permit on family, property, work or other grounds. Apply promptly; while a court challenge with a stay of execution is pending, the cancellation is not enforced.
• Family members who remain citizens can sponsor a family residence permit.
• Property. If liquidation was not ordered, real estate can be retained subject to the rules on foreign ownership; see the property guide linked above.
• Work. A work permit is required.
• Reapplying. Nothing in the law prohibits a new application under the general conditions, but the previous finding will weigh heavily against it. See Turkish Citizenship Application Rejected.
• Other nationality. Check whether your former nationality was lost and how it can be recovered.

Frequently asked questions

Can Turkish citizenship be revoked?

Yes, in three ways: cancellation where citizenship was obtained by false statement or concealment of important matters; withdrawal of a decision made without the legal conditions; and deprivation by presidential decision for listed acts against the State.

Can citizenship by investment be cancelled?

Yes, if it was obtained through false statements or concealment — for example an inflated valuation, a sham purchase, or a breach of the undertaking not to sell for three years that shows the investment was not genuine.

Will I lose citizenship if I divorce after becoming a citizen through marriage?

Not because of the divorce itself. Citizenship is cancelled only if the declarations on which it was granted were false — for instance, the marriage was not genuine. A person who married in good faith keeps citizenship even if the marriage is annulled.

Does cancellation affect my spouse and children?

Yes. A cancellation decision also applies to a spouse and children who acquired citizenship through the person concerned. Deprivation under Article 29, by contrast, is personal and does not affect them.

What happens to my property if my citizenship is cancelled?

If liquidation is considered necessary, the decision says so, and assets in Turkey must be liquidated within one year; otherwise they are sold by the Treasury and the proceeds held in your name. If you challenge the decision in court, liquidation is deferred until the case ends.

Is there a time limit after which citizenship can no longer be cancelled?

Article 31 states none. Cancellation for false statement or concealment can occur years after naturalisation. For withdrawal of a decision on other grounds, arguments based on legal certainty and the passage of time are available.

How do I challenge a cancellation decision?

By an annulment action before the administrative court within 60 days of notification, with a request for a stay of execution. The court examines whether a false statement or concealment of an important matter attributable to you has actually been established.

Can a citizen by birth lose Turkish citizenship?

Not by cancellation, which concerns acquisition decisions. A citizen by birth can lose citizenship by voluntary renunciation or, in the narrow cases listed in Article 29, by deprivation through presidential decision.

Can I get Turkish citizenship back?

After deprivation under Article 29, re-acquisition is possible by presidential decision after three years' residence in Turkey, absent a national security obstacle. After cancellation, a new application under the general conditions is not prohibited, but the earlier finding weighs against it.

Legal basis and sources

• Turkish Citizenship Law No. 5901, Articles 12, 14, 16, 23–35 and 38–41 — official consolidated text at mevzuat.gov.tr.
• Constitution of the Republic of Türkiye, Article 66.
• Law No. 2577 on Administrative Procedure, Articles 7 and 27.
• Regulation on the Implementation of the Turkish Citizenship Law.

This article provides general legal information on Turkish law as of October 2026. It is not legal advice. Whether a particular file is at risk depends on the declarations and documents on which citizenship was granted.