This List of naturalized sportspeople of Turkey national teams contains foreign sportspeople, who were admitted to Turkey national teams following their naturalization as citizen of Turkey, and competed at international official competitions for Turkey.
There are rules and regulations that must be followed regarding the recruitment of athletes or the athletes who will represent the countries in competitions. Although the laws governing acquiring citizenship in another country vary from country to country, the regulations that must be followed in competitions organized worldwide are the same for every country.
Regarding the nationality of the competitors, following four main provisions are stated in Rule 41 published by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in the Olympic Charter:
According to the nternational Association of Athletics Federations' (IAAF) 2016-2017 International Competition Rules (Rule 5):
In team sports like football and basketball, the rules for competing for another country are even stricter. According to the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), if an athete has competed for one country in an official elite-level match, they are not permitted to compete for another country (FIBA, 2017; FIFA, 2015). This rule is also called "play-stay" in English.
While Turkey follows the aforementioned ules for recruiting athletes in international organizations, it also applies its own country's rules regarding acquiring Turkish citizenship to these athletes. The rules regarding acquiring Turkish citizenship are determined in accordance with the regulation "Regarding the Implementation of the Turkish Citizenship Law" issued by a cree dated 6 April 2010.
Recruited athletes are generally selected from athletes who have previously achieved success in sports or have a high potential for success. Reasons for acquiring citizenship include family reasons (marriage, having a parent who is a citizen of another country), economic difficulties in their home country, seeking financial income, obtaining a better education, improving training opportunities, or because their home country has a high number of successful athletes and is unable to compete in the Olympic Games.