ANKARA, July 25. /TASS/. Russians took the lead in the number of residency permits issued in Turkey last year, according to official data from the Turkish statistics agency Turkstat released on Tuesday.

Overall, 99,998 Russians applied for a residency permit, which was the highest figure among all foreign nationals filing residency permit applications in Turkey last year. Ukrainian nationals were in second place at 32,539 individuals. Iranian citizens came in third at a figure of 25,997 applicants.

The number of Russian nationals obtaining Turkish residency permits surged by 77% compared to 2021, Turkstat reports. Just 22,291 Russian nationals obtained the document two years ago.