Lithuania’s Supreme Administrative Court (LVAT) has rejected an appeal challenging the Migration Department’s decision to deny three applicants the right to take an oath of allegiance to Lithuania, citing their failure to provide proof of having renounced Turkish citizenship.
According to the court, the three Turkish citizens had already received presidential decrees granting them Lithuanian citizenship. However, they argued they were unable to formally renounce their Turkish citizenship due to fears of political persecution linked to their support for the ideas of Turkish cleric and social figure Fethullah Gülen.
The applicants claimed that, as a result of their political stance, they no longer received consular services from Turkey and that traveling to the country would pose a serious risk to their safety.
In its ruling, the LVAT emphasised that Lithuania’s citizenship law requires applicants to renounce any citizenship of another state. Exceptions apply only in rare cases – when a foreign country has no legal procedure for renouncing citizenship or when that procedure is clearly unreasonable. The court found that neither exception applied in this case.
The Migration Department previously stated that Turkish law provides a valid procedure for renouncing citizenship, one that meets reasonable standards. The LVAT agreed with this assessment, noting that the applicants had failed to provide sufficient documentation or evidence showing that they were objectively unable to complete the process.
The ruling means the applicants can obtain Lithuanian citizenship only after they officially renounce their Turkish citizenship and submit the necessary documentation to prove it.
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