Citizenship of a person of Turkish origin who lived in Salzburg for 20 years has been canceled by a court decision. His appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court was also rejected. 

Austria certainly does not accept dual nationality. When you qualify for Austrian citizenship, you must leave your country of citizenship. Under Austrian law, another citizen is automatically losing his Austrian citizenship. So what will be the situation of the Austrian Turkish citizens?

A citizen of Turkey who obtained Austrian citizenship 20 years ago was released from Turkish citizenship in accordance with the law. However, this person’s name is found on the Turkish abroad electoral list, then an investigation was launched by the Austrian Interior Ministry.

It was understood that the person had again applied to Turkish citizenship without informing the Austrian authorities. In the case in Salzburg State Administrative Court in June last year, he was ordered to be expelled from the citizenship. The decision was cited as evidence of person that are on vote list of 2017 Turkish referendum. So what will the Turkish citizens of Austria do?

How was it?

72 percent of Turkish citizens living in Austria used their vote for “yes” in Turkey’s Constitutional Referendum and had initiated the debate on the cancellation of their Austrian citizenship.

After the referendum, the extreme right-wing Freedom Party in Austria (FPÖ) handed over an external usb memory to the Austrian Ministry of the Interior, which included the names of 100,000 Turks who had the right to participate in a referendum.

This Decision may constitute a precedent

It is stated that the decision may constitute a precedent for the cancellation of Austrian citizenship of a Turkish citizen. The decision of the Supreme Administrative Court to cancel the citizenship is also expected to have a deterrent effect on the other Turkish citizens who have been expelled from the citizenship to open a case against the decision, taking into account the costs of the court.