Türkiye - Law guide

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This is an overview of an internet research on legislation in Turkey (as of December 2020). This overview aims to serve as a starting point to facilitate the research into legal texts. However, it should not replace independent verification of the different legal texts as to their currency, validity and accuracy. Please also bear in mind that official translations of legal texts only exist in rare cases.

Researching Laws

The state-run online portal Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi (“Legislative Information System”) provides Turkish versions of laws, presidential decrees, regulations, notifications and administrative procedures that were published in the Official Gazette. The website can be browsed using a search function, but is only available in Turkish. There is a table at the end of each legal document illustrating the amendments to the respective law, including the date of its entry into force:

Legislationline is an online platform maintained by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), providing access to international and domestic laws:

The German-language portal to Law & Economy in Turkey is a service provided by the law firm Rumpf Rechtsanwälte and Rumpf Consulting. The portal offers a collection of references, links, texts and legal texts relating to the law and economy of Turkey. The information is mostly available in German and English, legal texts in Turkish, English and/or German. The areas covered include, for example, the Turkish judicial system, Turkish authorities, constitution and administration, commercial law and criminal law:

The official gazette of the Republic of Turkey is called Resmî Gazete. It publishes new legislation and other official announcements in Turkish:

The Refworld database, operated by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), provides the option to search for English translations of some legislative texts:

To access the collection of national laws of Turkey on ecoi.net, please follow this link.

Constitution

The state-run online portal Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi offers a Turkish version of the 1982 Constitution, including the amendments that were adopted by the referendum on 16 April 2017 and published in the Official Gazette on 27 April 2017:

An English version of the 1982 Constitution with amendments, including those of April 2017, is available at the website of the Turkish National Assembly (in this version the day of the referendum (16 April 2017) is cited as the amendment date):

A German translation of the 1982 constitution with amendments including those of April 2017 was prepared by Prof. Dr. Christian Rumpf:

  • Constitution of the Republic of Turkey, 7 November 1982, as amended on 16 April 2017, German translation by Prof. Dr. Christian Rumpf, as of June 2018 (available at Portal zu Recht & Wirtschaft der Türkei)
    http://tuerkei-recht.de/downloads/verfassung.pdf

Criminal Code

A Turkish version of the Penal Code of 2004 with amendments that came into force in April 2020 is provided by the state-run Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi:

The latest publicly available English version of the 2004 Turkish Penal Code was published by the Council of Europe in February 2016 and includes amendments up to March 2015:

Criminal Procedure Code

The Criminal Procedure Code with amendments that came into force up to August 2020 can be found on the state-run online portal Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi:

An English translation of the 2004 Turkish Criminal Procedure Code was prepared by Prof. Dr. Feridun Yenisey, Director of the Institute for Global Understanding of Rule of Law at Bahcesehir University in Istanbul, in 2009 and published on Legislationline. Neither the document itself nor the metadata reveal which amendments this translation includes:

Citizenship Law

A Turkish version of the 2009 Citizenship Law, including amendments that came into force in December 2019, is available at the state-run Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi:

An unofficial English translation of the Citizenship Law 2009 including amendments up to April 2018 is available under the following link on Refworld:

A German translation in the according to Rumpf Rechtsanwälte current version is available on the Turkish Law & Economy Portal (see above). The document does not indicate which amendments are included in this translation:

A German paper on Turkish citizenship law as of April 2020 is also provided by Rumpf Rechtsanwälte:

Law on Fight Against Terrorism

The Law on Fight Against Terrorism in Turkish language can be accessed via the following link:

An unofficial English translation of the Anti-Terror Law as amended in 2010 and can be accessed via the following link:

(Sources accessed at 21 December 2020)

Cite as:

ACCORD - Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation: ecoi.net Turkey Law Guide, December 2020
https://www.ecoi.net/en/countries/turkey/law-guide/

  • Austrian Red Cross
  • Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation (ACCORD)

ecoi.net is run by the Austrian Red Cross (department ACCORD) in cooperation with Informationsverbund Asyl & Migration. ecoi.net is funded by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, the Austrian Ministry of the Interior and Caritas Austria. ecoi.net is supported by ECRE & UNHCR.