Berlin, Shawwal 6, 1437, Jul 11, 2016, SPA -- The number of people naturalized as German citizens fell last year, despite a further strong rise in demand for the nation's passport from Central and Eastern Europe. About 107,200 foreigners received German citizenship, a fall of 1.1 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, the Federal Statistics Office (Destatis) said on Monday. The figure was also 1.4-per-cent lower than the annual average of the last ten years, dpa quoted Destatis as saying. Foreigners from Central and Eastern Europe lead the group of people seeking German citizenship, with the number of people from Ukraine gaining German citizenship surging by 32.6 per cent last year. Syrians gaining German citizenship also jumped by 11.2 per cent last year after large numbers of Syrians flooded into Europe's biggest economy seeking refuge from their nation's more than five-year civil war. However, the number of Turkish citizens becoming naturalized Germans slumped by 12.4 per cent. --SPA 17:27 LOCAL TIME 14:27 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w