1- I got married to a Turkish man under a customary marriage contract as a second wife and I gave birth to a son but my husband refuses to register him, do I have the right to ask for alimony for my son?
Firstly regarding registering the child, the Syrian woman that got married to a Turkish man under a customary marriage contract and gave birth to a child shall have the right to register the boy under the name of the Turkish man as his father and her name as his mother - but she won’t be a wife- and if the husband refuses to register the child, she can raise a claim to establish paternity of the child and obliging the father to register him after performing DNA test. Then she of course can ask for alimony for the child who will gain the nationality of his father at the moment of registering him.
3- I left Turkey during the feast vacation decided by the Turkish government and I didn’t return in the set appointment and now they are refusing to let me enter Turkey, is there a solution?
Unfortunately, anyone that leaves Turkey and does not return during the stated legal periods loses his right in protection and also loses his “Kemlik” card especially the Turkish Government gave many periods for those who delayed in return to be able to correct their situations so anyone that couldn’t return won’t be able to enter Turkey.
5- I legally married a Turkish person and it has been 3 years now since this marriage and when I applied to get the nationality, my papers were rejected because I didn't provide a family residency, so what is the solution?
Unfortunately most of Syrians (men and women) don’t notice this issue and they get surprised with this request after the passage of the 3 years. After writing the legal official marriage contract in the marriage office in the municipality, we advise the Syrian party to change his touristic residence permit into a familial residence permit and keep renewing it annually and in this case the legally required period of three years will be counted and after that the Syrian party can submit his papers to get the Turkish nationality as they consider this period as a confirmation of familial life between wife and husband not just a customary marriage for the purpose of getting the nationality. Of course, the mutual life between husband and wife will be checked after submitting the papers and the police will visit the house of the couple and their children to check if it is true or not.
7- I want to demand reunification with my wife and children, what are the requested documents for that and where to apply with them?
At the beginning you need to know the reunification is limited to wife or husband or children below 18 years old and they have to have valid passports. Regarding the requested documents, they are (a copy of the “Kemlik” or the residency permit of the persons that demands reunification+ a residency deed from the personal status department in the region where the applicant lives+ a translated copy of the family record or a translated and authorized family statement or a translated and authorized marriage deed (if there are no children) + a statement in which the applicant of reunification clarifies his name as stated in the “Kemlik”, his place of residence, when he entered Turkey and name/ names of the persons he wants to get reunified with as written in their passports and their relation to him) and finally booking an appointment on the electronic link specified for reunification from Bab Alhawa Crossing Border exclusively and then personally submitting the documents in the specified appointment in the office of the manager of Bab Alhawa Crossing Border and finally following the page of the crossing border because it will publish the passport numbers of those who got accepted for reunification.
9- I have a “Kemlik” card from a state this is different from the one I am living in, is there a legal responsibility on me?
Yes, there is a legal responsibility that causes a financial fine and it mostly causes deportation to outside Turkey as it is not allowed to live in an address that is different from the one registered in the personal status department. Recently the Turkish authorities focused a lot on specifying addresses and updating them even if you move inside your state from one house to another, you have to update your new address thus staying outside the city where you got your “Kemlik” card will be considered a violation and deception that result in penalty and deportation.
11- I got married with a customary contract and my wife is still underage and now she is pregnant, so what is the solution?
The customary contract is not legally admitted in Turkey and it legally brings accountability and result in 6 months in prison for the husband and the father of the wife and 3 months for the religious person that wrote the contract, this is regarding the customary marriage contract. And regarding the marriage from a minor especially if she was below 17 years old, it is considered a crime of sexual assault on a minor and result in 15 years in prison for the husband and the father of the wife.
So we here are facing a compound problem especially the wife is pregnant and giving birth in the hospital will lead to informing the police and then facing the penalties and if she gave birth outside the hospital, there will be a danger on the mother and you won’t be able to register the baby as there will be no birth certificate from the hospital.
13- I wrote a lease contract for one year and after few months the leaser wants to end the contract and threatened me with police if I don't do what he says, so what shall I do?
The leaser can’t evict the lessee from the property before the end of the lease contract and the police has nothing to do with such issues even if the police came and asked you to leave the place and you refused, it won’t be able to oblige you to do so and the leaser will have to go for judiciary and get a judgment with eviction. So don’t do anything and tell the leaser that you will leave his property after the end of period agreed on in the contract.
We always recommend to pay the rent pursuant to receipt vouchers or a bank order in order to have a document that proves payment.
15- I’m a Syrian teacher and I’m employed in one of the Turkish schools but I was informed of getting fired, so is there a solution?
Unfortunately, the Syrian teachers were contracted by the UNICEF as volunteers not as official employees and as it is known the party that wrote the volunteering contract with you has the right to end it and release the volunteer anytime without any legal responsibility.
17- What are the most important advices to be considered when I give power of attorney to a lawyer in Turkey?
- You have to agree on the attorney and fees in the presence of a person that speaks Turkish language.
- Don't sign any documents without surely knowing what they include.
- Paying attention during writing the attorney for the amount of money agreed upon and the method of paying it.
- Getting a receipt voucher for each payment gets paid for the lawyer.
19- Who will take the custody of children what are the criteria taken by the court to decide?
- Child below three years old is specifically in his mother's custody.
- Child from 3 to 7 years old is mostly and with a percentage of 95% decided by the judge to remain under his mother's custody.
- Child in age of 12 gets asked about his wish whether to remain with his mother or with father and his wish is mostly granted.
- Child between 7 to 12 years old the judge decides who will take his custody from what he sees will be better for the child.
- There are factors that get taken into consideration like the financial capability of the custodian- availability of healthy residence with a room for the child- the social rank of the custodian.
- We shall point that men and women in the Turkish law are equal in demanding custody and the final decision is for the judge to take according to the benefit of the child. And after that the judge regulates the issue of seeing the child for one that isn’t a custodian for the child. Both parents shall bear the expenditures of the child with percentages decided by the judge based on the financial capability of each of them.
21- What is the penalty of forging currency or dealing with forged currency?
Article no. 197 from the Turkish Penal Law stated on imprisonment from two years to 12 years as well as fine for a period of ten thousand days for any person that smuggles or imports or produces or deal with forged currency inside the state. And it stated on imprisonment from one year to three years for anyone that accepts to receive forged currency while knowing that it’s forged. And it stated on imprisonment from 3 moths to one year for anyone that accepts to receive forged currency but doesn’t know that it is forged and he dealt with it after knowing that it's forged.
23- What is the most important thing to be considered and should be written in the lease contract?
- Making sure that you are renting from the owner of the leased property or his legal attorney and attaching a copy for the lessor’s identity and his attorneyship if he was an attorney.
- The period of the lease contract, its start and end date.
- Whether the leased property empty or contains furniture.
- The allowance of monthly or annual rent agreed on and the method of paying it.
- The percentage of the annual increase on the rent in case of extending the contract.
- Making sure that there is no financial debts on electricity, water and gas and it's better to be accompanied by the lessor in order to transport the meters to your name.
25- Is there incrimination for the discriminative behavior and hate speech in the Turkish law?
Article 216 from the Turkish Penal Law handled the issues related to hate speech and discriminative behavior as it punished with
- Imprisonment from one year to three years for the person that incites a group of people to attack another group of people for reasons related to social or ethnic or religious or sectarian or regional differences if this act forms a danger on the public order.
- And imprisonment from six months to one year for any person that publicly humiliates a group of people based on social rank or ethnicity or religion or sex.
- And finally imprisonment from six months to one year also for anyone that publicly humiliates religious values adopted by a group of people.
27- As a Syrian can I buy a property and register it under a name of someone else and guarantee my right in it?
The Syrians can’t own properties in Turkey based on the norm of reciprocity... And buying a property by the Syrian person and registering it under a name of someone else isn’t regarded a good choice as there will be no guarantee to reclaim your ownership for the property if that person neglects it even if this was authorized at the notary public, you will claim the value of the property not the ownership of the property, so the right will be transformed from a real right into a personal right. Thus, the Syrians always go for establishing a company and register the property as one of the company’s properties and consequently all the partners of the company will be having a percentage of ownership from the property that equals his percentage in the company. This is in addition to the monthly cost of the company which reaches at least one thousand TRY which equals the rent of a house of your remained under a rent.
29- If the police station refused to regulate a complaint for me, what shall I do?
Go to the Public Prosecutions and submit your complaints in a shape of direct claim and refer in your claim that the police station refused to regulate a complaint with the incident.
