In response to a question sent by Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Aydın deputy Ertuğrul Kumcuoğlu regarding marriages between foreigners and Turks, Interior Minister Beşir Atalay provided some figures that clarified the current picture. According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, there were 24,842 marriages between Turks and foreigners in 2002. The following year, 2003, saw a considerable drop in these numbers, with a far fewer 16,542 Turkish-foreigner marriages. In 2005, these numbers dropped even further, to 14,062. In 2008, there began to be a rise, with numbers going up to 19,763.

Interior Ministry data show that it is largely Turkish men who are marrying foreigners, and not the other way around. Between 2001 and 2007, a total of 94,497 Turkish males married foreigners, while a far fewer 32,621 Turkish females married foreigners. So, in total during this period, 127,118 Turks married foreigners. If you add in the data from 2008, 146,881 Turks married foreigners between 2001 and 2008.

During the 1990s, foreigners marrying Turks gained the automatic right to citizenship once their marriages were officially certified. Authorities discovered, however, that this right was being abused and changed the law mandating that Turkish citizenship could only be applied for after three years of marriage to a Turk. This change in the law is seen as being a large factor in the drop of marriages between Turks and foreigners.

According to further data from the Interior Ministry's General Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs, between the years 1995 and 2006, a full 40,686 people gained the right through marriage to obtain Turkish citizenship. In 2007 and 2008, those granted citizenship -- including people who had completed their three-year waiting period -- was up to 81,246. What this data show is that nearly half of all those who marry Turks do end up gaining the right to citizenship. Every year on average, 1,000 people gain the right through marriage to obtain Turkish citizenship.

Number one on the list of foreigners marrying Turks are Azerbaijanis, whose language is very similar to Turkish, although there has been no real increase in the numbers of Azerbaijanis marrying Turks in recent years. Marriages between Turks and Germans, however, are on the rise every year. Currently, around 600 German women marry Turkish men annually. The German Federal Statistics Department issued data that showed in 2007, some 3,800 German women married Turkish men.

A couple of the special foundations established in Istanbul by European and American women who have married Turkish citizens are the International Women of Istanbul (IWI), and Die Brücke, formed for German speakers.

Australians follow Germans in terms of marriages to Turks. After this come Bulgarians, British, Moldovans, French and Dutch citizens.  Interestingly, the most unusual marriage combinations are with people from the Far East and South America.

Economic crisis appears to cause increase in marriages with foreigners

Data from the Interior Ministry seem to indicate that geographical changes and regional warfare has worked to increase the numbers of marriages between Turks and foreigners. The break-up of the Soviet Union, the Balkan wars and the invasion of Iraq -- these were all periods when Turkish-foreigner marriages greatly increased. Currently, with the global economic crisis, marriages between Turks and Germans are undergoing a visible increase. Similar increases in Turkish-foreigner marriages were witnessed during the economic crises of 1995 and 2001 in Turkey. The reason for these increases cannot be officially explained. Some believe that perhaps some of these marriages took place with the belief on the Turkish side that their economic futures could be saved by marrying a foreigner.

Marriages with Syrians increasing, too

With the rising popularity of Turkish television series in a variety of Middle Eastern countries, there has been a visible increase in the number of marriages between young Arab women and Turkish men. This includes not only women from the Gulf nations, but also countries like Egypt, Syria and Jordan.