Only six people want to “remain Turkish” in Austria

In Austria, where the AKP garnered 73% of “Yes” votes in the referendum, only 6 people left Austrian citizenship to go back to Turkish citizenship in the last two years.

52.000 people voted in the April 16 referendum in Austria, and 73% of them voted “yes”. Turkey has been on the agenda in Austria for a while now, with the first crisis emerging when the Electoral Board announced the number of Turkish citizens eligible to vote in Austria - as Austria doesn’t allow dual citizenship.

According to the Electoral Board, there were 108.561 voters eligible to vote in Austria. But Austrian authorities announced that there were 116.000 Turkish citizens who live in their country, and only 93.000 of them were over the age of 18. 

According to the Austrian press, the Interior Ministry launched an inquiry over the voter list found in a voting venue during the April 16 referendum. There are 95.984 people in this list.

The ministry has completed their preliminary inquiry, and they assume 44.000 of these people hold both Turkish and Austrian citizenship illegally. The ministry is following up on these 44.000 people and will complete their full inquiry in the coming days.

An article was published on the issue in the Salzburger Fenster newspaper in Austria. The article lists consulate officials as sources, and claims that every day there are at least 10 people rushing to the consulates to return their Turkish citizenship.

10 TURKS LEAVE TURKISH CITIZENSHIP EVERY DAY

As the Austrian government launched the inquiry on the illegal dual citizens, many people have appealed to Turkish consulates to leave Turkey’s citizenship since April 16. According to Salzburger Fenster, at least 10 people appeal to the Turkish consulates every day to return their Turkish citizenship.

Meanwhile, the number of people who gave up Austrian citizenship to return to Turkish citizenship in the last 2 years has been cited as 6. Like other Western European countries, Austria also has the most applications for citizenship from citizens of Turkey.

FEAR OF A 5.000 EURO FINE

There are an estimated 15.000 people in Austria who have illegally switched to Turkish citizenship. The government officials had announced that the Austrian citizenship of these persons will be revoked and they will be fined 5.000 Euros.

Last May, it had come to light that many Turks were fraudulently listed as living in Austria. The Kronen Zeitung newspaper published documents that hundreds of Turkish students registered in student dormitories in Vienna didn’t actually live in Austria.

The paper inspected 136 Turkish students, and found that they didn’t live in the dormitories and nobody knew who they were. There are Turks aged 87 and 89 among the “students” the paper published.