Turkey citizenship fraud crackdown

In early August 2026 Turkish authorities announced a nationwide operation that cancelled more than 6,000 citizenships granted to foreign nationals through falsified property appraisal reports. The coordinated effort by the Ministry of Interior, the Justice Ministry, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office and police units led to the arrest of 72 suspects in 16 provinces and the seizure of over 1,100 real‑estate units, a hotel in Bodrum, a yacht, vehicles and bank accounts.

Two days later, additional details emerged about the criminal network behind the scheme. WhatsApp messages between alleged ringleader İbrahim Halil Babacan and associate Uğur Gültekin showed how property values were artificially inflated and bank transactions fabricated to meet the legal thresholds for citizenship. The follow‑up report confirmed the same scale of revocations, arrests and asset seizures, and highlighted that the fraud cost the state billions of Turkish lira and posed a national‑security risk.