The 7-year-old Syrian girl whose photos and tweets have made her one of the most prominent faces of the Syrian civil war was granted Turkish citizenship on Friday, according to the Turkish government.
Bana Alabed began tweeting last year about her wartime experiences during the siege of eastern Aleppo. The tweets, written with the help of her mother, Fatameh, an English teacher, provided an intimate look at a family struggling to survive the ongoing war.
Bana’s account has grown to nearly 370,000 followers, and her story caught the attention of J.K. Rowling and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, among others.
Bana, her mother, father and two younger brothers fled Aleppo and made it to safety in Turkey.
“I am very happy, so much safe and peace and play, there is no bombings,” she told CNN in February.
On Friday, the family acquired Turkish citizenship and received state ID cards at a reception at Ankara Esenboga Airport, officials said.
The official Twitter account of the Turkish presidency tweeted about the meeting, along with some adorable photos of the new citizens.
The citizenship will give Bana time to work on her her memoir, scheduled to publish this fall.
