Turkish Laws in English: Where to Read the Official Texts and Reliable Translations

For nine core laws, from the Constitution to the Code of Obligations, this guide gives the official Turkish text on mevzuat.gov.tr and every English version we could verify, with its publisher, date, coverage and the amendments it misses.

No Turkish law has an English text with legal force. Every Turkish code is enacted and published in Turkish, and the Turkish text, consolidated with its amendments on the Presidency’s Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi, is the only version a court, a notary or an enforcement office applies. English versions exist for some codes, but they come from different publishers, cover different parts of each law and stop at different dates. This guide sets out, for nine laws foreign clients and their lawyers ask about most, where the official Turkish text is and which English versions we could open and check on 18 October 2026, with their publisher, date, coverage and status.

The nine laws are the Constitution, the Penal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code, the Civil Code, the Code of Obligations, the Commercial Code, the Code of Civil Procedure, the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law and the Labour Law. Every number, date and Official Gazette reference below is taken from the consolidated Turkish text: its header, final provisions, footnotes and amendment table. Every link was opened before it was listed; sources that no longer load were left out.

Where can I find Turkish laws translated into English?

There is no single official collection. The table gives the short answer for each law: the official Turkish text, the best English version we found, and how far that version can be trusted. The sections that follow add the details.

Three rules hold for every row. The Turkish text governs. A translation is only as current as the date it states, and two of the nine sources in the table state none. And a partial translation says nothing about the articles it leaves out.

The official Turkish text: Resmî Gazete and the Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi

Every Turkish law is published in the Official Gazette (Resmî Gazete) and enters into force on the date its own final provisions set. Amendments are published the same way, as separate laws that change individual articles, so the Gazette alone never shows a code as it currently reads. That is the job of the Presidency’s Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi, which keeps each law in consolidated form: the current wording in the body, a numbered footnote at each changed provision naming the amending law, and, at the end, a table listing every amending law, decree-law and Constitutional Court annulment decision, the articles it changed and the date each change entered into force.

Each law has a stable address built from three values: the law number (MevzuatNo), the type (MevzuatTur, 1 for a law) and the series (tertip) of the Düstur, the official compilation of laws, in which it was published (MevzuatTertip). Eight of the nine laws in this guide sit in the fifth series. The Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law of 1932 sits in the third, so its address ends in MevzuatTertip=3; with the fifth series the site returns an error page.

One feature catches English-language readers out. A change whose entry into force is deferred may be held back from the consolidated text until that date arrives; meanwhile the article carries only a footnote pointing to the Official Gazette that published it. The amendment table of the Code of Civil Procedure, for example, lists Article 149 as changed by Law No. 7589 with effect from 31 October 2026, and the footnote refers the reader to the Official Gazette of 31 July 2026 (No. 33326). A translation made today from the consolidated text would miss that change.

Code by code: the official text and the English versions

Constitution of the Republic of Türkiye (Law No. 2709)

Adopted on 18 October 1982 and published in the Official Gazette of 9 November 1982 (No. 17863, repeated issue). The Grand National Assembly’s Department of Laws and Resolutions published a complete English translation in May 2019; the copy hosted by the Constitutional Court describes it as the official translation published by the Grand National Assembly. It marks the provisions changed by Law No. 6771, approved in the referendum of 16 April 2017. The consolidated Turkish text lists Law No. 6771 of 21 January 2017 as the most recent amending law, so on the date we checked this was the only complete and current English text among the nine laws in this guide.

Penal Code (Türk Ceza Kanunu, Law No. 5237)

Adopted on 26 September 2004, published in the Official Gazette of 12 October 2004 (No. 25611); apart from Article 184 and the first paragraphs of Articles 181 and 182, it entered into force on 1 June 2005 (Article 344). A full-length unofficial English translation is hosted by Women’s Learning Partnership. The ecoi.net law guide lists the WLP file as the latest publicly available English version and describes it as including amendments enacted in 2016, but the translation itself carries no amendment notes, and its numbering does not match the enacted text: it ends at Article 342 where the Turkish text ends at Article 345, and its entry-into-force article (341) still gives 1 April 2005, the date that Law No. 5328 changed to 1 June 2005. The Code’s amendment table in Turkish runs to dozens of later laws, the most recent being Law No. 7593 of 8 August 2026, so every penalty range in the English text needs checking.

Criminal Procedure Code (Ceza Muhakemesi Kanunu, Law No. 5271)

Adopted on 4 December 2004, published in the Official Gazette of 17 December 2004 (No. 25673), in force since 1 June 2005 (Article 334). The widely cited English version is the unofficial translation by Prof. Dr. Feridun Yenisey printed in Istanbul in 2009, hosted on UNODC’s SHERLOC database. It predates, among other changes, Article 128/A, added by Law No. 7571 of 24 December 2025, which allows a bank, payment service provider or crypto-asset service provider to suspend for up to 48 hours an account used, on reasonable suspicion, in certain forms of qualified theft and qualified fraud (Penal Code Articles 142(2)(e) and 158(1)(f) and (l)) or in misuse of bank or credit cards (Article 245). Our guide to Turkish criminal procedure maps the Code article by article for English-language readers.

Civil Code (Türk Medeni Kanunu, Law No. 4721)

Adopted on 22 November 2001, published in the Official Gazette of 8 December 2001 (No. 24607), in force since 1 January 2002 (Article 1029). We found no complete public English translation. The legal translator Tim Drayton publishes Articles 202–281 on matrimonial property regimes, stating that the section was translated as enacted and had not been amended as of 28 June 2024, after which he stopped checking for amendments.

Code of Obligations (Türk Borçlar Kanunu, Law No. 6098)

Adopted on 11 January 2011, published in the Official Gazette of 4 February 2011 (No. 27836), in force since 1 July 2012 (Article 648). The only English text we could verify is Tim Drayton’s translation of Articles 49–76 on tort, as enacted and unamended as of 28 June 2024. The next section answers what the Code is and how to read the rest of it.

Commercial Code (Türk Ticaret Kanunu, Law No. 6102)

Adopted on 13 January 2011, published in the Official Gazette of 14 February 2011 (No. 27846), in force as a rule since 1 July 2012 (Article 1534). The Insurance Association of Turkey publishes an unofficial English translation of the Sixth Book (insurance law, from Article 1401), and Tim Drayton Articles 1350–1400, the special rules on enforcement, chiefly against ships, including their arrest as they stood on 28 June 2024. Our guide to the Turkish Commercial Code sets out in English the provisions foreign shareholders use most.

Code of Civil Procedure (Hukuk Muhakemeleri Kanunu, Law No. 6100)

Adopted on 12 January 2011 and published in the same Official Gazette issue as the Code of Obligations (4 February 2011, No. 27836); in force since 1 October 2011 (Article 451). Tim Drayton publishes Articles 105–117 on types of action, procedural requirements and preliminary objections, as they stood on 28 June 2024. The translated range has since changed: Law No. 7589 of 16 July 2026 repealed Article 107 and added a fourth paragraph to Article 109, both with effect from 31 July 2026.

Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law (İcra ve İflas Kanunu, Law No. 2004)

Adopted on 9 June 1932 and published in the Official Gazette of 19 June 1932 (No. 2128), in the third series of the Code of Laws. Tim Drayton publishes Articles 78–105 on attachment as they stood on 28 June 2024. We found no complete English translation.

Labour Law (İş Kanunu, Law No. 4857)

Adopted on 22 May 2003 and published in the Official Gazette of 10 June 2003 (No. 25134). The International Labour Organization’s country page for Türkiye lists “Labour Act No. 4857 of 22 May 2003, unofficial English translation”, but the link on that page did not resolve when we checked on 18 October 2026. An English text of the whole Law is published by Cott Group, a payroll and human resources consultancy, on a page dated 5 October 2018 that carries no amendment notes.

What is the Turkish Code of Obligations and where can I read it in English?

The Turkish Code of Obligations is Law No. 6098, the general law of contracts and civil liability in Türkiye. It was adopted on 11 January 2011, published in the Official Gazette of 4 February 2011 (No. 27836) and entered into force on 1 July 2012 (Article 648), repealing the Code of Obligations No. 818 of 22 April 1926 (Article 647).

The Code has two parts. Part One, the general provisions, sets out the sources of obligations, starting with contract (from Article 1), then tort (Articles 49–76) and unjust enrichment (Articles 77–82), followed by the rules on performance, non-performance and the other effects of an obligation. Part Two, the special obligations, begins at Article 207 with the contract of sale and continues through the other named contracts.

You can read the binding text in Turkish only, on the Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi. We found no complete English translation from a public body or a database that maintains one. The only English text we could open and check is Tim Drayton’s translation of the tort provisions, Articles 49–76, as enacted and unamended as of 28 June 2024; the translator notes that the Code was closely modelled on the Swiss Code of Obligations. For any other article, the practical route is the Turkish text and a translation made for the purpose, checked against the current consolidated version.

How to work safely with an unofficial translation

An English version is useful for finding the right article and learning the vocabulary. It becomes dangerous when a period, an amount or a condition is taken from it without checking. Four habits avoid most mistakes:

1. Date the translation. Find the date it states, or the date the file was published if it states none. Open the amendment table at the end of the consolidated Turkish text and list every change that entered into force after that date.
2. Read the whole article in Turkish. A translation may render one paragraph correctly and miss a later paragraph, a cross-reference or a footnote announcing a deferred change.
3. Watch the verbs. Turkish statutes distinguish concepts that ordinary English blurs: a claim that becomes time-barred (zamanaşımına uğrar) is not the same as a right that lapses at the end of a peremptory period (hak düşürücü süre), and “deemed to have accepted” is not the same as “a debt arises”. The Turkish verb decides the consequence.
4. Let the Turkish text decide. Article 3 of the Constitution provides that the language of the State of Türkiye is Turkish. Where a contract, a court petition or an opinion turns on the wording of a provision, the quoted text should be the Turkish one, with the English as a working translation.

The table below sums up which kind of English source suits which task.

Using this guide

This page is reviewed when one of the listed sources changes. It does not cover regulations, Presidential decrees or court decisions. For regulations and decrees the same rule applies: the Turkish text published in the Official Gazette governs. Where a translation matters to a live file, such as a contract dispute, a debt collection in Türkiye or a criminal complaint, the safe course is to have the governing Turkish provisions identified and read in full before any decision is made on the English version.