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Ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–53,067 foreigners were granted Georgian citizenship from 2005 to 2013, and in 2013 the president granted citizenship to most of them – 9,626 people.

According to the report of Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), the president granted citizenship to 7,123 foreigners in 2012, to 8,559 in 2011 and 5,904 in 2010.

During 2005-2013, the president granted Georgian citizenship to 37,462 citizens of Russia, which is twice the number of citizens of other countries. IDFI thinks this is because ethnic Georgians living in Russia applied to the president for Georgian citizenship.

After Russia comes Turkey with 3,464 approved applications, Israel 3,367 and Azerbaijan 1,705.

In 2013, in the last months of his presidency, ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili granted Georgian citizenship to thousands of Turkish citizens, which in the end was the same amount as between 2005-2012. https://dfwatch.net/saakashvili-grants-citizenship-to-more-georgians-in-turkey-40799

Saakashvili granted Georgian citizenship to 2,832 Turkish citizens in 2013. The majority of Russian citizens, 7,208 persons, were granted Georgian citizenship in 2011.