In case of a divorce

I have a couple of questions as my fiance and I are planning our upcoming wedding. He is Turkish, and I am Norwegian. We are going to live in Turkey and we are getting married there.

Our problem is that I already own a property in Turkey, and we have agreed that if (God forbid) we one day are having a divorce, this property will still be mine. Here in Norway we have a rule that the property/money etc you bring with you into the marriage - you also take with you if you are getting divorced. As far as we understand this is not always the case in Turkey.

What are the rules in Turkey? Are the rules different if there is a Turk involved/a foreign involved?
What do we have to do to make sure that this property stays mine, and I don`t have to lose 50% of it after a divorce.


Thank you very much in advance

Dear Maria,

First, I'd like to extend my congratulations as wishing a happy common future with your husband.

The property regime between the spouses in Norwegian law is also effectual in Turkish law for the marriages registered as of the date 1st January 2002. The property you possessed with your own monetary facilities before the marriage is considered as your personal property that your husband can assert no claims towards in a probable divorce case, unless you choose to have another property regime with your husband(such as the community of all properties) to be executed in registration office.

You will, consequently, have the full rights in usual terms on your property according to Turkish law as well as you do under Norwegian law, no matter what your national identity is.

I hope this hepls,

King of regards.

I have a separate question and hope someone can help me.

I have been legally married to a Turkish man for 18 years, but lived apart for most of it because he left me and our children and returned to Turkey. He married again there & has other children, but because he never divorced me,I am still his legal wife. Our marriage took place in my country Mexico where we lived & I think that it never got registered in Turkey, our children are not registered in Turkey either.

My question is that I have not been able to divorce him because lawyers have asked for a lot of money which I don't have, so I sugested to my husband that I would get a divorce without lawyers if he agrees to give me and our children a divorce settlement. I asked for this many times, but he always ignored me in the past, now he is saying that he will give me something for the children, but that he does not have to give ME anything because he has been living with the other wife longer, he also said that Turkish courts will ignore my case because they only recognize Muslim weddings. He said the courts will ask me why I did not divorce him before and will rule against me and not make him pay me anything, is he right?. I did not marry again so I think the courts should ask him why he did not divorce & not ask me that question, he broke the law, not me. I struggled alone to raise our children all these years while he gave himself freedom to do whatever he wanted, surely the courts will recognize this, or not?. He gives his Turkish children a priviledged life and I want him to start doing the same for our children.

So I just want to know if i have any rights. We were married in civil court in 1990, he left us in 1993. I did not ask for divorce before because I did not have enough money, he did not ask for divorce because he did not want to pay me anything and because he thought I would never ask for divorce. Given he abandoned the marriage & family the way he did, I am thinking/hoping that the Turkish courts will see me as the legal wife & count every year we have been legally married & not just the 3 years he stayed with us before he disappeared. tesekkur ederim.

Alıntı: Yazan Konuk I have a separate question and hope someone can help me. I have been legally married to a Turkish man for 18 years, but lived apart for most of it because he left me and our children and returned to Turkey. He married again there & has other children, but because he never divorced me,I am still his legal wife. Our marriage took place in my country Mexico where we lived & I think that it never got registered in Turkey, our children are not registered in Turkey either. My question is that I have not been able to divorce him because lawyers have asked for a lot of money which I don't have, so I sugested to my husband that I would get a divorce without lawyers if he agrees to give me and our children a divorce settlement. I asked for this many times, but he always ignored me in the past, now he is saying that he will give me something for the children, but that he does not have to give ME anything because he has been living with the other wife longer, he also said that Turkish courts will ignore my case because they only recognize Muslim weddings. He said the courts will ask me why I did not divorce him before and will rule against me and not make him pay me anything, is he right?. I did not marry again so I think the courts should ask him why he did not divorce & not ask me that question, he broke the law, not me. I struggled alone to raise our children all these years while he gave himself freedom to do whatever he wanted, surely the courts will recognize this, or not?. He gives his Turkish children a priviledged life and I want him to start doing the same for our children. So I just want to know if i have any rights. We were married in civil court in 1990, he left us in 1993. I did not ask for divorce before because I did not have enough money, he did not ask for divorce because he did not want to pay me anything and because he thought I would never ask for divorce. Given he abandoned the marriage & family the way he did, I am thinking/hoping that the Turkish courts will see me as the legal wife & count every year we have been legally married & not just the 3 years he stayed with us before he disappeared. tesekkur ederim.

Turkish authorities are not entitled to refuse registry applications of marriages under any circumstances as discriminating the parts on a religious base due to secularism principle in the constitution.

You should first apply for getting your marriage registered in Turkish authorities in order to claim your and your children's inheritance and allowance rights from your Turkish husband.

If you are sure of his second marriage in Turkey, you can lodge to prosecutor's office for getting your husband punished right after the registration of your marriage in Turkey considering that bigamy is a defined crime in Turkish penal code.

The answers of your other questions have already been written in several topics under this forum section. Please take a look at the messages written before in response to the questions regarding the issues similar to yours'.

Best wishes.

The reply was so quickly, a thousand tessekur ederim.

I know for sure about his second wedding because I told embassy about our marriage and they investigaged and told me he had a Turkish wife and 2 children registered in Turkey, marriage date was after ours so I'm the first wife.

Can I register the marriage, but not prosecute him? Or will Turkey automatically prosecute him If I register marriage through the embassy?. I don't want him to go to jail because is no good for me or his other family if he is locked-up, I just want him to give our children what they deserve, he is a rich man, he can afford to treat all his kids the same. Again tessekur..so many cases similar to mine, I was so surprised.

Actually, the prosecution of your husband is an extra action that may force him to pay the damages occurred at yourself and children. I've given this advice in order to strengthen your arguments against him while directing your claims. The punishment of this crime is not a heavy one that can put him locked up in prison. He'll probably receive a monetary penalty if he has a clean criminal record. However, if you still prefer not to report him to the prosecutor's office, you can claim your rights in private law courts without getting in any criminal cases. Yet, you should bear it in mind that the prosecutor may automatically come into action during his trial of compensations.

You should file a case in Turkish courts in order to direct the claims regarding your and your children's rights from your husband. Furthermore, you can demand from the court to cancel his second marriage in order to exclude his second wife from his inheritance (provided that she wasn't aware of his first marriage while getting married).

You need the professional support of a Turkish lawyer for following up all these ways I've recommended.

Good luck,

King regards.

I don't know what to say, you have helped me a lot, you have with your words & explanation made my case very strong, you see, he might have a clean criminal record in Turkey, but one of the reasons he left us is because he got in trouble with the law in my country, he was arrested for fraud & released on bail, after that he just run back to Turkey like a coward, without taking us with him (I would have followed my husband anywhere as per my love and wife's duty) and without a word to us for many years. Though he did not commit this crime in Turkey, I'm sure he won't want Turkish court to know that he is actually a fugitive from the law of another country. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Can you tell me in what Turkish city you live?.

Alıntı: Yazan Konuk I don't know what to say, you have helped me a lot, you have with your words & explanation made my case very strong, you see, he might have a clean criminal record in Turkey, but one of the reasons he left us is because he got in trouble with the law in my country, he was arrested for fraud & released on bail, after that he just run back to Turkey like a coward, without taking us with him (I would have followed my husband anywhere as per my love and wife's duty) and without a word to us for many years. Though he did not commit this crime in Turkey, I'm sure he won't want Turkish court to know that he is actually a fugitive from the law of another country. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Can you tell me in what Turkish city you live?.

You are very welcome, it's a pleasure for myself to help the ones needing information regarding Turkish law from abroad. I must say that you have strong arguments and evidences for claiming your/your children's rights of allowance and inheritance from your husband. I recommend you to start the legal process from registering your marriage in Turkish offices. This should have done by your husband(the Turkish spouse according to the law) as applying to the nearest Turkish consulate in 30 days within your marriage. However, you can still do this application -by yourself- to a Turkish Consulate as stating your situation. Btw, I'm living in a town named Kayseri in the central region of the country.

Best wishes

Can you help us? My fiancee was granted a divorce in court and we are due to marry soon in weeks time. He found out that he is still married in paper. How long it takes the divorce to get registered by goverment so he can have his single-papers from nufus office? Is it because the lawyer hasnt handed the papers there or what could be the problem? he got the divorce granted about 5 weeks ago.
Thank you.

Alıntı: Yazan Konuk Can you help us? My fiancee was granted a divorce in court and we are due to marry soon in weeks time. He found out that he is still married in paper. How long it takes the divorce to get registered by goverment so he can have his single-papers from nufus office? Is it because the lawyer hasnt handed the papers there or what could be the problem? he got the divorce granted about 5 weeks ago. Thank you.

Dear Guest,

The records of registry offices can merely be changed or executed upon receiving the court decisions formally. It, generally, takes nearly a month of writing and posting the specific decision of the court to the registry office. Your fiance's divorce verdict is probably either waiting for to be written specifically by the court, or was sent but still hasn't been received by the office due to postal delay.

You can go to the concerned court and ask for the outcome of the divorce decision whether to have been written(or sent). Your fiance(or his lawyer)can ask for the permission of delivering the papers to the office by hand from the judge for quickening the process, if it's still hasn't been sent by the court.

Hope this helps,

Best wishes.

Thank you for your reply concerning the divorce papers that nufus office didnt register. They have now done it and everything is okay. We still seems to have a problem with the papers. It occured that my fiancee`s ex-wife hasnt registered their divorce in her country. So in paper they are still married in her country. He has been granted a divorce in Turkey and and his ID-card has been changed too. We are getting married now. Is our marriage legal?
Thank you ever so much.

Alıntı: Yazan Konuk234 Thank you for your reply concerning the divorce papers that nufus office didnt register. They have now done it and everything is okay. We still seems to have a problem with the papers. It occured that my fiancee`s ex-wife hasnt registered their divorce in her country. So in paper they are still married in her country. He has been granted a divorce in Turkey and and his ID-card has been changed too. We are getting married now. Is our marriage legal? Thank you ever so much.

You have every right in Turkey as two single spouses regarding marriage. The records in your husband's ex wife's country has no effect on the validity of a new marriage unless he wants to marry with a citizen of the concerned country.

Congratulations.

Thanks ever so much!!! What a relief!!!

I have read lots of your posts and Im quite sure you could help me.

My fiancee has been married previously to foreign women, in diffrent country but his divorce has been issued in TR, and is not regisered in country of marriage. He is officially divorced now in Turkey (nufus office papers and ID are clear)

As you posted several times - under some conditions both parties need to be present at the court, but Im 100% sure his ex-wife was not present there. I think my fiancee neither. I know he left all his assets and rights for the children(from the country of marriage) to her.

Looks like only theirs solicitors were present at the court - Is it possible that court made decision under such circumstances?

Also - His ex - wife's postal adress (from the court)decision was same as his - in TR - while she never lived at this adress and while divorce case - her permanent adress was in her country.

Something looks not right to me with this divorce, but it might be only my uneccessary suspicion. I hope you wd decide to help me,

Looking forward to your reply,
Best Regards
TK.

Alıntı: Yazan Konuk I have read lots of your posts and Im quite sure you could help me. My fiancee has been married previously to foreign women, in diffrent country but his divorce has been issued in TR, and is not regisered in country of marriage. He is officially divorced now in Turkey (nufus office papers and ID are clear) As you posted several times - under some conditions both parties need to be present at the court, but Im 100% sure his ex-wife was not present there. I think my fiancee neither. I know he left all his assets and rights for the children(from the country of marriage) to her. Looks like only theirs solicitors were present at the court - Is it possible that court made decision under such circumstances? Also - His ex - wife's postal adress (from the court)decision was same as his - in TR - while she never lived at this adress and while divorce case - her permanent adress was in her country. Something looks not right to me with this divorce, but it might be only my uneccessary suspicion. I hope you wd decide to help me, Looking forward to your reply, Best Regards TK.

Dear guest,

Both sides have to be present in the court solely in divorce cases filed with the agreement of both spouses. Sides, particularly defendant, don't have to present in the trial if the concerned case is a controversial one. However, both spouses have to be delivered the notice of the case by the court for making the verdict. The divorce case can not come to an end and divorce decision can not be made by the court under any other circumstances that the sides weren't informed regarding the case by notices.

Your fiancee's ex wife can direct an objection or file a case if there's anything she claims contrary to procedures shown in the law in the duration of divorce case.

Regards.