DIVORCE, PROPERTY DISTURBUTION, CHILD CARE AND ALIMONY
Divorce is one of the most common problems that foreign citizens turn to for legal consultation. The divorce procedure in Turkey for foreigners is the same as for citizens of Turkey. In order to get a divorce, you must go to the family court. Persons who have decided to divorce can go to court on their own or with the help of lawyers.
According to Turkish law, there are two common types of divorce:
1. DIVORCE BY AGREEMENT
(according to the Turkish law, it is possible only if the spouses have been married for more than one year)
• After the divorce settlement agreement is signed by both parties, the couple will be divorced in a short time.
2. DIVORCE BY CLAIMS:
• The court hears the arguments of the two parties, listens to the witnesses and then establishes the guilty party in the divorce. If a foreign citizen applied for divorce and then has to leave country, to avoid delay with submittion of application, lawyers can proceed this procedure on his behalf.
DIVORCE PROCEDURE FOR FOREIGN CITIZENS IN TURKEY
There are two types of scenarios that foreign nationals may face when filing for divorce in Turkey:
• One of the spouses is a Turkish citizen, and the other is a foreign citizen (in this case, each spouse has the right to file for divorce in their country, but if there is a court decision in one of the countries, you can recognize the same decision in the other country)
• Both spouses are foreigners living in Turkey. In this case, you can apply for divorce in Turkey, but the decision on divorce will be based on the law of the countries of citizenships of spouses.
A foreigner can file a divorce by issuing a power of attorney to a lawyer and for this he does not need to come to Turkey.
If a foreigner is outside of the Turkey and wants to write a power of attorney for a lawyer, it is necessary to contact nearest consular department of the Turkish Republic.
DISTIRBUTION OF PROPERTY OF FOREIGN CITIZENS IN TURKEY
The property relations of the spouses are based on the family legislation of the country where the marriage was registered. If the spouses were citizens of different states at the time of the marriage, then the decision on the division of property will be made on the basis of the country in which the family has lived for the last six months.
The division of property proceedings in Turkey according to the principle of joint property, if there is no marriage contract. If such contract exists, then the division of property will be in accordance with the clauses of the agreement.
CHILD CARE
According to Turkish law, young children always remain under the care of their mother. Exceptionally, if the mother provides inappropriate behave and it is proven, then judge may consider of given a custody to the father.
ALIMONY IN TURKEY
There are three types of alimony in Turkish family law:
financial support of the spouse (yoksulluk nafakası); temporary alimony (tedbir nafakası) and child support (iştirak nafakası).
Financial support of a spouse is alimony paid to a spouse who, as a result of a divorce, found herself/himself in a more difficult financial situation.
Temporary alimony is alimony assigned by the court before the decision on divorce is made.
The amount of alimony can be increased if the requested party proves that the amount of the payer’s profit has increased.
