How to read legal citations in Turkey

Turkish law is codified in the civil-law tradition. Statutes are cited by their law number and the Official Gazette (Resmî Gazete). The Constitutional Court hears individual applications, which are cited by their application number.

Updated October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.

Style guide: Official Gazette and court practice. Turkey has no single mandatory citation style. Laws are cited by name and number and the date of the Official Gazette; Constitutional Court individual applications are cited by application number and date.

Real citations, decoded

Click or hover over any underlined piece to see what it means.

A Constitutional Court individual application Case

[], ,

Applicant Şahin Alpay
Individual applications are named after the person who applied.
Chamber GK
Genel Kurul, the Plenary of the Court. A decision of one of its sections is marked with the section instead.
Application number B. No: 2016/16092
'B. No' means Başvuru Numarası, the application number. It starts with the year the application was lodged, then a running number.
Date 11/1/2018
The date of the judgment, day first. This one was decided on 11 January 2018.

The Court found a violation of the right to liberty and security and the freedom of expression.

A statute Statute

(),

Title Türk Borçlar Kanunu
The Turkish Code of Obligations, covering contract and tort.
Law number No. 6098
Turkish laws have a number, which is the safest way to identify them.
Article art 49
Article 49 is the general rule of liability in tort: a person who causes loss by a wrongful and faulty act must make it good.

The Civil Code Code

(),

Title Türk Medeni Kanunu
The Turkish Civil Code, in force since 2002.
Law number No. 4721
The law's number.
Article art 2
Article 2 states the principle of good faith: every person must exercise rights and perform duties in good faith.

Things to remember

Turkey's highest courts are the Constitutional Court (Anayasa Mahkemesi), the Court of Cassation (Yargıtay) for civil and criminal cases, and the Council of State (Danıştay) for administrative cases.
Decisions of the Court of Cassation and the Council of State are cited by chamber, 'E.' (esas, the case number) and 'K.' (karar, the decision number), then the date.
Turkish dates are written day first, for example 11/1/2018 means 11 January 2018.
The Official Gazette (Resmî Gazete) is where a law or a Constitutional Court judgment becomes official.

Where to find the text, free

To understand how courts and law fit together in Turkey, read the Turkey profile in the Legal Families Atlas.

TheLawToKnow Tools’s citation guide is an educational overview of standard conventions. Courts and journals sometimes vary, so check the style guide before submitting or publishing. It is not legal advice. Report a mistake.