Naturalization of the Syrians in Turkey .. between the complaint of slow procedures and the positions of the state and society

Khalil Mabrouk - Istanbul

More than a year has passed since the young Syrian Nidal Al-Shaar submitted his papers to obtain Turkish citizenship, but his file has since been locked in drawers at the General Directorate of Immigration and Foreign Affairs in Istanbul.

The slogan (28 years old), a father of two children, says that he holds an official Turkish work residence card registered in Istanbul, and has worked since his arrival in 2013 in an auto repair workshop in the Altan Shaheer area with official work permission, indicating that the employer renews health insurance and its social security document as well .

And never before, the slogan, which is from the city of Idlib, was subjected to any arrest or detention, confirming in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net that his name does not bear any security or criminal suspicions, even if they were similar to the names, but despite this his file still ranges in his place.

Obstacles to naturalization
Many Syrians applying for citizenship complain of the slow formalities, and accuse the Immigration Service of delaying it without legal justifications even though it meets the legal requirements.

However, officials of the Immigration Department confirmed that many files for applicants for naturalization are still in the process of being reviewed, either to complete deficiencies in their details, or a conflict between their data and the information documented by the central system and the country code, and sometimes the lack of accuracy of that data.

An official from the department, who asked not to be named, explained that some auditors attend, for example, a copy of a university degree, or the Syrian high school diploma after translating it into Turkish, and certifying it from the notary, but they fail to show the original copy that they obtained from their country, Although this is one of the requirements to follow the procedures.

The same official clarifies in a statement to Al-Jazeera that what the auditors see as a "simple procedure" that represents in the official work circles a violation of the naturalization conditions that requires the suspension of the transaction until the required document is presented.

According to the Turkish official, applying for citizenship is readily available to Syrians in all states of the country, but they must present a binding (set of papers) that varies according to the applicant’s conditions between the exceptional nationality, the citizenship of work residence holders, the nationality of married couples, or holders of higher degrees and scientific and professional competencies.

The position of the state
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced - in a televised interview last week - his country's intention to raise the numbers of Syrians with citizenship, stressing that Ankara granted citizenship to this day to 110,000 Syrians, and granted residence to more than one hundred thousand others.

Turkey grants its nationality in general through four entry points: residence for the purpose of working continuously for a period of five years, marrying a Turkish citizen or citizenship, or the exceptional citizenship granted in very special cases, or by investing an amount of at least $ 250,000 for a period of three years at least.

All Syrians regularly residing in Turkey are candidates for applying for citizenship, with a large variation in the criteria according to the nature of residency, so those who do not have a work permit from them meet many criteria for exceptional citizenship, and Ankara had previously announced that it plans to naturalize three hundred thousand Syrians.

"Long-term" residency, which is sometimes called "permanent residency," is granted to those whose period of legal and legal residency in the country has exceeded ten years, but very few apply for this residency due to the great similarity between its requirements and the requirements of citizenship.

The ruling Justice and Development Party's philosophy of granting citizenship to Syrians is based on the principle of increasing their opportunities to integrate into the local community to alleviate the refugee situation and its consequences, and to convert them instead into productive members of society.

Observers say that the authorities expanded the doors to integrate Syrians as the largest communities in the country, granting them special and exclusive privileges in education, investment and employment, and lifting them many restrictions imposed on the rest of the foreigners.

The severity of the opposition
But the opposition does not share this trend with the state, as it called on the leader of the Good Party, Miral Aksinar, to work to deport the Syrian refugees to their country according to three phases. In a workshop in the capital, Ankara, last week, she called for wide cooperation between the institutions and the involvement of the Syrian regime in the three phases.

Turkish political analyst Erfan Aktan puts the opposition's tough stance towards the Syrians file in the category of "escalating racism" in the country, and he said in a previous symposium that this file is being called up strongly in the electoral stations.

As for Sibel Toktamech, a researcher at Aiden University, she believes that the national background of Aksinar represents the basis for the explanation of her party's refusal to naturalize the Syrians, stressing that a wide section of Turks refuses to integrate the naturalized or "new Turks" into the Turkish home.

The researcher says - in a statement to Al Jazeera Net - that there are other factors that are more dynamic in building community attitudes than Syrians, including economic competition in addition to media mobilization and propaganda "propaganda" that contribute a lot to building community attitudes towards many issues.