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Turkey offers citizenship to foreigners with deep pockets

To attract much-needed foreign currency to the country, Ankara is offering Turkish citizenship to wealthy foreigners, but given Turkey’s gloomy economic and political outlook, the plan may lead to disappointment.
A board showing the currency exchange rates of the U.S. dollar and the Euro against Turkish lira is on display at a currency exchange office in central Istanbul, Turkey January 12, 2017. REUTERS/Murad Sezer - RTX2YN8E

ANKARA, Turkey — On Jan. 12, Turkey’s official gazette published a government decree on granting citizenship to foreigners who bring in large sums of foreign currency, a plan that Ankara had long been considering.

The decree, which amends rules on the implementation of the Turkish Citizenship Law, puts a price tag of at least $1 million on citizenship. Approved also by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the amendment describes the eligible foreign nationals as follows:

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