Turkish ministry considers adopted Moroccan child's citizenship as ‘national security problem’

Hacı Bişkin / Gazete Duvar 

An Istanbul woman has applied to the court to adopt a five-year-old child of Moroccan origin living in Turkey. Upon the approval of the child’s biological’s mother and expert’s report, the court accepted the woman’s demand and said that she had “formed a connection” with the child.

After the finalization of the court’s decision, the child acquired the right to be a Turkish citizen but to get her Turkish identity card, the woman, only known by the initials P.Y., applied to the Interior Ministry.

The Interior Ministry, however, rejected the citizenship application, citing reasons of “national security” and “obstacle for public order” in its decision.

Faced with this refusal, the woman filed a lawsuit against the Interior Ministry at the Ankara Regional Administrative Court, saying that the ministry had not explained how it is the case that the past or records of the child constituted an “obstacle within the concepts of national security or public order.”

“As per the child’s best interest, it is necessary for her to be accepted into Turkish citizenship. Otherwise, this will constitute as a violation of human rights. If she faces for any reason in her adulthood a sanction such as being expelled (from Turkey), this will constitute a violation of human rights. Because she will be torn away from her country where she has been living since birth and she knows as her own country,” the woman’s petition read.

(English version by Didem Atakan)