A family from Stuttgart hiking in Cappadocia pick up a small fossil shell from a path. A retired couple from Düsseldorf buy a handful of worn coins from a man near the ruins at Ephesus. A diver from Kiel keeps a fragment of carved marble he found in shallow water off the Aegean coast. A businessman from Frankfurt buys a brass lamp and a small figurine in an antiques shop in Istanbul. Each packs the object in a suitcase, and at the X-ray machine on departure customs officers ask them to open the bag.
What follows is governed by Law No. 2863 on the Protection of Cultural and Natural Property and by the Code of Criminal Procedure (Law No. 5271, CMK). This guide explains which objects the Law protects, what the offences are, what happens to the object and to the traveller, and what can be done from the first day. Customs rules on cash, gold and goods are a different subject and are covered in a separate guide in this series.
Which objects the Law protects
Law No. 2863 starts with two definitions. Cultural property is all movable and immovable property, above ground, underground or under water, belonging to prehistoric and historical periods and relating to science, culture, religion and the fine arts, or that was part of social life in those periods and has original scientific and cultural value (Article 3(a)(1)). Natural property is property, above ground, underground or under water, belonging to geological, prehistoric and historical periods that must be protected because of its rarity or its characteristics and beauty (Article 3(a)(2)).
Article 23(a) then lists movable cultural and natural property requiring protection, and the list is what surprises most travellers. It covers property of geological, prehistoric and historical periods with documentary value for geology, anthropology, prehistory, archaeology and art history, and it names, among other things:
- all kinds of animal and plant fossils, human skeletons, flint and volcanic glass (obsidian);
- tools of bone or metal, tiles, ceramics and similar vessels;
- statues, figurines, tablets, weapons, icons and glassware;
- ornaments, ring stones, earrings, pins, seals, bracelets and similar items;
- weighing instruments, coins, stamped or inscribed plates, manuscripts and illuminated books;
- engravings and paintings of artistic value, medals, and similar movable items of earth, glass, wood or fabric, and fragments of them.
The same paragraph adds ethnographic property reflecting the social life of the people, including man-made tools and implements, and states that coins of the Ottoman sultans Abdülmecit, Abdülaziz, Murat V, Abdülhamit II, Mehmet Reşat V and Vahidettin, and coins of the same period, may be bought and sold within the country without registration. Other coins are subject to the general provisions of the Law.
Two further rules frame everything that follows. Protected movable and immovable cultural and natural property found on land belonging to the State or to private persons is State property (Article 5). And anyone who finds such property must report it within three days to the nearest museum directorate or, in a village, to the headman and elsewhere to the local administrative authority (Article 4).
What the offences are
Three provisions of Law No. 2863 matter at an airport.
Taking property out of the country. Movable cultural and natural property requiring protection may not be taken out of Türkiye (Article 32). Taking cultural and natural property out of the country in breach of the Law is punished with five to twelve years’ imprisonment and a judicial fine of up to five thousand days (Article 68). Because the object is usually found at departure, before it has left the country, whether the offence was completed or only attempted (Turkish Criminal Code (TCK) Article 35) is part of the case. For an attempt, the sentence is reduced by between one quarter and three quarters, according to the gravity of the harm or danger (TCK Article 35(2)).
Not reporting, buying and selling. Knowingly failing, without excuse, to report cultural and natural property is punished with six months’ to three years’ imprisonment (Article 67(1)). Offering for sale, selling, giving, buying or accepting cultural or natural property that has not been reported is punished with two to five years’ imprisonment and a judicial fine of up to five thousand days, and in that case the reporting offence is not punished separately (Article 67(2)). This is the provision that reaches the traveller who bought coins or a figurine from a street seller.
Unauthorised digging. Digging or drilling without permission to find cultural property is punished with two to five years’ imprisonment, reduced by one third if the place is not a site or another place requiring protection under the Law, and searching for treasure without permission with three months to two years (Article 74). This concerns travellers who used a metal detector or dug at a site.
None of these offences depends on the value of the object. The question in each case is whether the object falls within the definitions in Articles 3 and 23 and whether the traveller acted knowingly.
What happens at the airport: seizure and the expert question
When customs officers find an object that may be protected property, the object is held. Under the Code, property useful as evidence or subject to confiscation is taken into safekeeping, and if the person holding it does not hand it over voluntarily it may be seized (CMK Article 123(1) and (2)). Seizure may be carried out by the police on a judge’s order or, where delay would be harmful, on the written order of the public prosecutor or, if the prosecutor cannot be reached, of the police chief (Article 127(1)). A seizure made without a judge’s order must be put before the judge within twenty-four hours; the judge announces a decision within forty-eight hours of the seizure, failing which the seizure is lifted automatically (Article 127(3)). The person whose property was seized may ask the judge for a decision at any time (Article 127(4)).
The file then turns on a factual question: is the object cultural or natural property within the Law, and does it require protection? That assessment is a matter for expert examination in the investigation. A fossil, a coin or a carved fragment that looks old may turn out to be a modern copy, a souvenir or an object without the character the Law requires; or it may be the real thing. The answer decides whether there is an offence at all.
If the object is protected property, it is handed over to a museum (Law No. 2863, Article 75). If it is not, it is returned: seized property is returned, on request or of the authority’s own motion, once it is no longer needed for the investigation or it is clear that it will not be confiscated, and a refusal can be challenged by objection (CMK Article 131(1)).
Custody, remand and the exit ban
A traveller stopped at the airport may be taken into police custody, and the rules on custody periods, a lawyer, an interpreter and consular notice apply as described in our guide on a German citizen detained in Türkiye.
The remand rules are stricter for this offence. Offences under Articles 68 and 74 of Law No. 2863 are in the list of offences for which a ground for detention may be assumed where there is strong suspicion based on concrete evidence (CMK Article 100(3)(e)). That does not make remand automatic. The judge must still find concrete evidence of strong suspicion, must not order remand where it would be disproportionate to the importance of the matter or the expected sentence (Article 100(1)), and must state, with concrete facts, why judicial control would not be enough (Article 101(2)).
For a traveller with a single fossil or a few coins, the arguments at the remand hearing can concern the nature of the object, the absence of any intention to trade, how the object was obtained, and the traveller’s readiness to cooperate with the expert examination. Judicial control is the alternative the Code offers (Article 109), and the obligation most relevant to a traveller is not leaving the country (Article 109(3)(a)). How that obligation is reviewed, changed and challenged is the subject of our guide on the exit ban in Türkiye.
Ethnographic items: carpets, copper and household objects
Not every old object falls under the export ban in the same way. Ethnographic property, meaning man-made tools and implements reflecting the social life of the people, may be freely bought, sold and transferred within the country (Law No. 2863, Article 24(2)). For such items taken abroad, control can be carried out by museums or by specialists stationed at certain customs exits, and items whose export is found objectionable are identified and returned to their owners on condition that they are used within Türkiye (Article 24(4) and (5)).
For a traveller who bought an old carpet, a copper pot or a set of household tools, the invoice, the seller’s name and address and any document the seller provides about the item’s age and export are the useful papers. The rule in Article 24 does not reach archaeological objects such as coins, figurines or fragments of ancient buildings, which remain under Article 32.
The situations compared
| Situation | Provision | Penalty in the Law | What happens to the object |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protected object found in luggage at departure | Law No. 2863, Articles 32 and 68; attempt under TCK 35 | 5 to 12 years and a judicial fine up to 5,000 days; reduced for attempt (TCK 35(2)) | Handed over to a museum if protected (Art. 75) |
| Protected object bought from a seller | Law No. 2863, Article 67(2) | 2 to 5 years and a judicial fine up to 5,000 days | Handed over to a museum if protected (Art. 75) |
| Object found and not reported | Law No. 2863, Article 67(1) | 6 months to 3 years | Handed over to a museum if protected (Art. 75) |
| Digging or using a detector at a site | Law No. 2863, Article 74 | 2 to 5 years (digging); 3 months to 2 years (treasure search) | Handed over to a museum if protected (Art. 75) |
| Object found not to be protected property | No offence under Law No. 2863 | None | Returned (CMK 131(1)) |
| Ethnographic item found unsuitable for export | Law No. 2863, Article 24 | None stated in Article 24 | Returned to the owner for use within Türkiye (Art. 24) |
What the traveller and the family can do
At the airport, the traveller has the rights every suspect has: to be told of the accusation, to remain silent about it, to choose a lawyer and have the lawyer present, and to an interpreter (CMK Articles 147(1) and 202(3)). It is wise not to give a detailed statement about where and how the object was obtained before speaking to a lawyer, because those facts are exactly what the case will turn on.
The useful material is simple and often already on the traveller’s phone: photographs of the place where a fossil or stone was picked up, receipts and the seller’s details for anything bought, messages with tour guides, and the travel itinerary. For coins and antiques, the shop’s invoice and any certificate given by the seller matter. From Germany, the family can send these to the lawyer; the person in custody can meet the lawyer without a power of attorney (CMK Article 154(1)).
Once the object has been examined, the next steps depend on the expert finding: return of the object and an end to the investigation if it is not protected property, or an investigation and possibly an indictment if it is.
How Lex Lata works on these files
Lex Lata advises on Turkish criminal procedure and acts before Turkish prosecutors and courts. On a Law No. 2863 file, the lawyer attends the statement, examines the seizure record and the investigation file, follows the expert examination of the object, argues the remand hearing or the judicial control request, and asks for the return of objects that are not protected property. Reports go to the traveller or the family in English or Turkish. German law and any German side of the matter belong to a Rechtsanwalt in Germany. For the wider context of a Turkish matter run from Germany, see our overview for clients in Germany.
