In its constant quest to support its national economy and attract more investors, Turkey has amended the law on granting Turkish citizenship to foreigners, whether through investment or exceptionalism. It is well known that the administrative procedures in each transaction differ from one country to another, and among these procedures, which some questions were raised about, is the change of name or surname when obtaining citizenship. In this article, we will try to talk about this procedure and information about it.
After a large number of foreigners in general and Arabs in particular acquired Turkish citizenship, a large number of them kept their name and surname as it is in their original passports, but considering that the Turkish alphabet is different from English, many of them fell into embarrassment when pronouncing it in the Turkish language, and the meaning may be completely different from the meaning of the name The truth is that the name has a beautiful meaning in Arabic, but it has a bad or shameful meaning in Turkish.
For example, a person whose name is Bayan and writes Bayan, it is a beautiful Arabic name, but in Turkey it has a famous meaning
Which is the lady, or the word masa in Arabic is a jewel, but in Turkish it is a table
In order to avoid falling into such a problem, the person who applied for Turkish citizenship can change his full name, which is an option for the applicant and not mandatory.
Law No. 1353 relating to the acceptance of Turkish characters and their applications, allows foreigners applying for Turkish citizenship to change their names or surnames to Turkish designations, bearing in mind that the foreign name can be retained, but provided that it is written in Turkish characters; Provided that the name does not exceed two words, and without writing abbreviations. As for the nickname, it should be one word, and nothing separates it from the name, such as the presence of a dot or any sign.
According to the law, people whose names have written or spelling errors, contrary to public morals, funny, humiliating, or have a meaning different from the intended meaning as a result of using modification signs in their names or nicknames, can change their names and surnames only once and without a court decision
The head of the family can apply for amendment for himself, his wife and his immature children in the department of souls to which he belongs, and by a decision of the administrative body in the region, the amendment is made.
The cases in which the name is changed are related to the desire of the naturalized. There is a right guaranteed by Turkish law to the applicant for Turkish citizenship, to change his name based on his desire, due to factors belonging to the applicant himself.
There is a case due to the fact that the name is difficult to pronounce in Turkish, so the employee applying for Turkish citizenship is advised to modify some letters to make it easier to pronounce.
There are cases in which the change is mandatory, such as if the name has a bad meaning in the Turkish language, or is funny, and one of the cases in which a partial change is required is the presence of a name that contains letters that do not belong to the Turkish language, such as the letters (W Q X).
Legal effects of changing the name for the holder of Turkish citizenship:
If a person has to change his name or nickname, he must prove himself to the relevant departments, whether it is with universities, embassies, government departments or banks.
In order to prove this, the person submits to the Turkish Soul Department, with the citizenship decision issued by the Ministry of Interior, to obtain a name modification statement (isim denklik belgesi).
In the event that a person is obliged to show his identity in a foreign country outside Turkey, he must obtain attestation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the embassy of the destination country to show the necessary documents.
For example, a person has a university degree obtained from Syria or Turkey, and wanted to present it to a new entity, but the name on the passport or identity card is different, so he must then show the link.
As for banking transactions, the person may be forced to liquidate the old account in order to avoid subsequent dilemmas, or to present the modification statement to the concerned banking authority for one time, and request the approval of one of the two names.
Finally, we show that the law allowing the change of names and surnames has relieved many of the burdens on the courts that were looking into such cases, and it has also reduced bureaucratic procedures and shortened the time required for this.