Family Law and Divorce in Türkiye

Uncontested divorce (anlaşmalı boşanma)

Where the marriage has lasted at least one year and the spouses apply together, or one spouse accepts the other’s case, the marriage is deemed to have broken down (TMK Art. 166/3). The judge must still hear both spouses in person, be satisfied that each is acting freely, and approve the arrangement the spouses have made on the financial consequences of the divorce and on the children. The judge may change that arrangement in the interests of the spouses and the children; if both accept the changes, the divorce is granted. Agreements on the ancillary consequences of a divorce are not valid until the judge approves them (TMK Art. 184, point 5), so the protocol should be drafted with the court’s review in mind.

Contested divorce and the grounds in the Civil Code

Without agreement, the spouse filing the case relies on a ground set out in the Civil Code:

• Adultery (Art. 161) and attempt on life, very bad or seriously degrading treatment (Art. 162). For both, the right to sue lapses six months after the spouse learns of the ground and in any event five years after the event, and a spouse who has forgiven has no right to sue.
• A degrading criminal offence or a dishonourable way of life (Art. 163), where living together can no longer be expected.
• Desertion (Art. 164), where a spouse has left to avoid the duties of marriage or does not return to the common home without just cause, the separation has lasted at least six months, and a warning to return, issued by a judge or a notary, has gone unanswered. The warning can be requested only after the fourth month of separation, and the case can be filed only two months after the warning.
• Mental illness (Art. 165) that makes life together unbearable, where an official medical board report confirms it cannot be cured.
• Breakdown of the marriage (Art. 166/1), the ground relied on in most cases in practice. If the claimant’s fault is heavier, the defendant may object, but the court can still grant the divorce where the objection is an abuse of right and no interest worth protecting remains for the defendant and the children (Art. 166/2).

If a divorce case is dismissed and one year passes after that judgment becomes final without the spouses resuming life together, the marriage is deemed to have broken down and the court grants a divorce at the request of either spouse (Art. 166/4).

The applicable law is a separate question. Under MÖHUK Art. 14, the grounds and effects of divorce follow the spouses’ common national law, then the law of their common habitual residence, and failing both, Turkish law. Before a Turkish court, two Turkish citizens living in Germany are therefore divorced under Turkish law, and a German and a Turkish spouse who both live in Istanbul are divorced under Turkish law through the habitual residence rule.

Under Art. 27/A, the decision must be final, given by a judicial or administrative authority competent under the law of the country that issued it, and not manifestly contrary to Turkish public order. An application refused for failing these conditions goes to recognition under MÖHUK (Art. 27/A(3)). In a recognition case the court checks the conditions of MÖHUK Art. 54 other than reciprocity: that the matter is not within the exclusive jurisdiction of Turkish courts and, if the defendant objects, that the decision was not given by a court with no real connection to the dispute or the parties; that the decision is not manifestly contrary to public order; and, where the person against whom it is invoked raises the point, that this person was duly summoned and represented under the law of that country. The court will need the foreign judgment, a document showing that it is final, and certified translations of both, the documents MÖHUK Art. 53 lists for enforcement. Law No. 4787, Art. 4 assigns the recognition and enforcement of foreign court decisions on family law to the family courts (the provision still refers to the former private international law statute, Law No. 2675, which MÖHUK replaced). Once recognised, the foreign judgment takes effect as res judicata from the date it became final abroad (MÖHUK Art. 59).

The details differ by country. We have written separate guides on recognition of a UK divorce in Türkiye, on a US divorce and the Turkish civil register, and on registering a Canadian divorce in Türkiye. Court work on foreign judgments outside family law is described on our foreign judgments and arbitral awards page. For Germany, the consular registration of a German divorce and the court route are covered in our guide on a German divorce decision and other matters for clients in Germany.

Circumstances change after a divorce. Where new facts, such as a parent remarrying, moving to another place or dying, make it necessary, the judge takes the measures required, on its own motion or at a parent’s request (TMK Art. 183). A planned move abroad with a child is one of the situations to raise with the court before it happens.

Periodic maintenance ends automatically if the receiving spouse remarries or either party dies, and the court cancels it if the receiving spouse lives with someone as if married, is no longer in poverty or leads a dishonourable life. The amount can be increased or reduced when the parties’ finances change or fairness requires it (TMK Art. 176).

Three points matter in cross-border files. For marriages concluded before the Civil Code came into force on 1 January 2002, participation in acquired property generally applies only from that date, and the regime of the earlier law governs the years before it unless the spouses agreed otherwise within the transition period (Law No. 4722, Art. 10). Where the spouses’ marriage has a foreign element, the law governing matrimonial property is the one they expressly chose from among their national laws or habitual residence at the time of marriage, or else their common national law at the time of marriage, then their common habitual residence at that time, then Turkish law (MÖHUK Art. 15/1); spouses who acquire a new common law after the marriage may become subject to it, without prejudice to the rights of third parties (MÖHUK Art. 15/3). And whatever that law is, real estate is liquidated under the law of the country where it lies (MÖHUK Art. 15/2), so a flat in Istanbul is divided under Turkish rules.

Divorced spouses are no longer each other’s statutory heirs (TMK Art. 181). Where a marriage ends by death rather than divorce, the questions change; our guides on inheriting property in Türkiye as a UK heir, as a US heir and as a Canadian heir cover that ground.