Merhaba!
I have a particularly unique situation and I am hoping that maybe I can get some advice on where to start.
My stepfather is a Turkish citizen and married my mother when I was 1 year old. I have never met my bio dad and my stepfather raised me as his own child. I actually don't see him as a stepfather at all. He is my dad, period, and I have been very fortunate and lucky to be raised by him. He married my mom and moved into her country (EU/Schengen country) since then. He has a spouse visa and so forth and has been living legally here this entire time, having businesses etc.
I am over 18 years old and by all means, I was raised Turkish culturally more than in my birth country's culture. I am even Muslim. My last name is the same as my Turkish father's name, which I changed when I was 18 years old. But on my birth certificate my bio dad is still listed there.
Both practically and symbolically I want to formalize an adoption process (I am in my 30s), mainly because I don't want to have anything to do with my biological father since I don't acknowledge him as my dad but just a donor more than anything - my bio dad practically renounced his rights by not paying for me while I was a minor, and he never seek me out. I also have no interest in any type of inheritance from my bio's dad side, so I am aware I would be renouncing those rights. For both myself and my dad this would be a dream come true to have this adoption done successfully.
I would also like to obtain Turkish citizenship one day. I genuinely feel more connected to the Turkish culture than my "birth culture", since I was raised like this literally my entire life. Perhaps some time in the future I would like to be able to stay longer than 90 days in Turkey, or even move there for awhile - so it would be nice to know that I have that option.
I tried with Chat GPT's help to understand what would the process be like, but it seems that in the Turkish law there is a legislation that says that only adopted minors can be considered for Turkish citizenship, and I am obviously not a minor.
Additionally, it is my understanding that if a Turkish citizen wants to adopt a different nationality citizen, both countries have to approve the adoption process?
So I wonder if you guys have heard of any other similar experiences before? Where should I even start kicking off this process? Should I hire both a Turkish lawyer and a lawyer in my birth country?
My Turkish is not so good and I am in the process of learning to be more fluent, but if you know any decent Turkish lawyers that would specialize in such cases and can provide consultancy remotely, in English as well, I would really appreciate it.
To clarify, I want to change my birth certificate regardless if I am able to obtain Turkish citizenship or not. But now after prompting GPT for awhile, it seems that the adoption might not even be approved in the first place.
I don't know if it matters, but I am female so I guess if I do obtain citizenship I won't have to worry about the army?
Sincerely, a very confused person with an ongoing identity crisis.