International child abduction in Turkey is handled under the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which Turkey applies through its own implementing law: the return case is brought by the local chief public prosecutor before the family court of the place where the child is, and the court decides only whether the child goes back to the country of habitual residence, not who should have custody. A parent whose child has been wrongfully removed to Turkey, or kept in Turkey after an agreed visit, applies for the child's return through the Central Authorities, and the Turkish Ministry of Justice passes the file to the prosecutor. This article explains what counts as wrongful removal or retention, how the application travels from the Central Authority to the court, what the court examines, the exceptions the taking parent can raise, how a return order is enforced, and what a parent in Turkey can do to prevent an abduction abroad.
- Turkey has been a party to the Hague Convention since 2000; the Ministry of Justice is the Central Authority and acts through local chief prosecutors.
- The return case is filed by the prosecutor before the family court; it is heard with priority, including during the judicial recess, and custody proceedings are stayed meanwhile.
- The court does not decide custody; a custody order obtained in Turkey after the removal is not a ground for refusing return.
- Return orders are enforced after they become final, through the judicial support offices with experts and, where needed, the police.
What counts as international child abduction under the Convention
The Convention applies to a child under sixteen who was habitually resident in one contracting state and has been removed to, or retained in, another contracting state in breach of rights of custody that were actually being exercised. Three elements must be shown. The first is habitual residence: the country where the child's life was in fact centred before the removal, judged on the facts of schooling, home, family and the parents' shared intentions, not on nationality or on where a parent would like the child to live. The second is rights of custody under the law of that country, which may belong to a parent by law, by court order or by agreement, and which include the right to decide where the child lives; a parent who holds a right of veto over the child's relocation holds a right of custody for this purpose even without day-to-day care. The third is that those rights were being exercised, or would have been but for the removal.
Wrongful removal is the typical case of a parent taking the child from the country of habitual residence to Turkey without the other parent's consent or a court's permission. Wrongful retention is the case that foreign parents in Turkey meet most often: the child comes to Turkey for a holiday or a family visit with the other parent's consent, and the agreed return date passes without the child being returned. The retention becomes wrongful on the day the child should have gone back, and the deadlines described below run from that day. Nationality is irrelevant: a child with Turkish citizenship who was habitually resident abroad is covered, and a Turkish parent who brings the child to Turkey is in the same position as any other parent.
In our practice the question that decides many files at the outset is the date of habitual residence. A family that moved to Turkey together for an open-ended period, enrolled the child in school and gave up the home abroad has often changed the child's habitual residence to Turkey, and a later departure of one parent does not turn the child's continued presence into a retention. A family that came for a fixed period with a return ticket and a lease still running abroad has not. The documents that answer this question are gathered before the application is made: tenancy agreements, school records, employment, residence permits, and messages in which the parents discussed the length of the stay.
How a return application reaches a Turkish court
The left-behind parent ordinarily applies to the Central Authority of the country of habitual residence, which forwards the application to the Turkish Central Authority, the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry carries out its duties through the chief public prosecutor's office (Cumhuriyet Başsavcılığı) of the place where the child is. The prosecutor's office first takes the steps needed to locate the child and protect the child's interests, including assigning the police where the address is unknown, and then invites the taking parent to return the child voluntarily or to reach a settlement. Where no settlement is reached, the prosecutor files the return case before the family court (Aile Mahkemesi) on behalf of the Central Authority. The left-behind parent may also instruct a lawyer in Turkey to apply directly and to take part in the proceedings; in our files the two routes run in parallel, because the Central Authority route carries the official weight and the lawyer's involvement keeps the file moving and the evidence complete.
The procedure ordinarily runs as follows.
- Application. The application form of the Central Authority, with the child's and parents' identity documents, the birth certificate, the custody order or the legal provision that gives the applicant custody, evidence of habitual residence, a photograph of the child and any information on the child's whereabouts in Turkey. Foreign documents are translated into Turkish; apostilles are not required for documents transmitted between Central Authorities, but a sworn translation is needed for the court.
- Location and protection. The prosecutor's office establishes the child's address through the population registry and the police. The applicant may at the same time ask for protective measures: a ban on the child leaving Turkey, a block on passport issue or renewal, and a block on changes to the child's school or registered address, so that the child cannot be moved again while the case is pending.
- Attempt at settlement. The prosecutor, and later the court, invite the parents to agree on a voluntary return or on arrangements for the child. An agreement reached at this stage can include the terms of the return journey, who travels with the child, and temporary contact.
- Filing before the family court. The prosecutor files the petition; the court serves it on the taking parent with the hearing date. The case is heard under the simplified procedure, with priority, and the law provides for it to be heard during the judicial recess as well.
- Hearing and expert input. The court hears the parents, may hear the child depending on age and maturity, and may take a report from a psychologist, pedagogue or social worker on the questions relevant to the exceptions. It may order temporary contact between the applicant and the child while the case continues.
- Decision. The court orders return or refuses it. If return is ordered, no custody decision is made in Turkey. If return is refused, the Turkish court may go on to decide custody.
The Convention asks courts to decide within six weeks. In our experience Turkish family courts treat these cases as urgent but a contested case with an expert report and an appeal ordinarily takes longer than that; the parent who prepares the habitual residence and custody evidence before the application, rather than after the first hearing, shortens the process more than anything else. Our service page on family lawyers in Turkey describes how we take on these files. Practice may vary by authority and year.
What the family court decides, and what it does not
The return case is not a custody case. The family court examines whether the removal or retention was wrongful and whether one of the Convention's exceptions applies; it does not examine which parent would be the better carer, and it does not weigh the child's welfare in the way a custody court would. Turkish law gives this rule teeth. If a custody case is pending or is opened in Turkey while the return application is being heard, the custody case is stayed until the return case is decided. A custody order obtained in Turkey after the return application does not justify refusing return. Where the two cases were joined, the court separates them and decides the return case first. The taking parent's common strategy of obtaining a quick Turkish custody order and then resisting return on the strength of it therefore fails as a matter of law, although it still consumes time.
Interim measures are the part of the procedure that most protects the child and the applicant. Until the case ends the court may place the child with a relative, with a trusted family or in an institution where the situation requires it, may order a temporary exit ban and the deposit of the child's passport, may block passport and identity document transactions, and may order periodic checks on the child's whereabouts. The applicant parent may be granted temporary contact with the child during the case, which in practice is also the first step towards a voluntary settlement, because a parent who has been cut off from the child for months is rarely in a position to negotiate.
The court encourages settlement before deciding on the merits, with experts where useful. In our experience a settlement that provides for a voluntary return with agreed contact for the taking parent in the country of habitual residence is often better for the child than a contested order, and it is enforced more easily, because the parent who agreed to it has fewer incentives to obstruct it. Where the taking parent has a real defence, the settlement talks are also the moment at which undertakings from the applicant, such as separate accommodation on return or the withdrawal of a criminal complaint, can be offered in exchange for the child's return.
The exceptions the taking parent can raise
The Convention allows a court to refuse return in a small number of situations, and the burden of proving them lies on the parent who opposes return. The first is time: where more than a year has passed between the wrongful removal or retention and the application to the court, and the child is now settled in the new environment, the court may refuse return. The year runs from the wrongful act, not from the moment the applicant learned where the child was, which is why the application is made as soon as the retention becomes wrongful even if the child's address is still unknown. The second is consent or acquiescence: a parent who agreed to the move beforehand, or who accepted it afterwards by words or conduct, cannot later demand return. Messages, emails and the applicant's own behaviour in the months after the removal are examined closely, and a parent who negotiated the terms of the child's stay in Turkey for months without objecting may be found to have acquiesced.
The third and most litigated exception is grave risk: that return would expose the child to physical or psychological harm or otherwise place the child in an intolerable situation. Allegations of domestic violence, substance abuse or neglect fall here. Turkish family courts examine these allegations with expert reports and evidence from the country of habitual residence; a general assertion is not enough, and the court considers whether the authorities of that country can protect the child on return, including through protective orders already in force or undertakings offered by the applicant. The fourth is the child's objection: where the child objects to return and has reached an age and degree of maturity at which it is appropriate to take the child's views into account, the court may refuse. The child is heard through an expert rather than cross-examined, and a view that repeats the taking parent's words carries little weight. The fifth, rarely successful, is that return would be contrary to the fundamental principles of the requested state on the protection of human rights.
Even where an exception is established, the court retains a discretion to order return. In our filings the applicant's response to a grave-risk defence is prepared from the outset: the protective measures available in the country of habitual residence, evidence from that country's courts or child protection services, and concrete undertakings that remove the alleged risk. The taking parent's response to a return application is likewise built on documents from before the removal, because a defence constructed after the application is filed is read by the court as exactly that. Our note on family law in Turkey describes how custody is decided once a return case has ended.
After the decision: appeal, enforcement and re-abduction
The Central Authority, the applicant and the taking parent may all appeal a return or a non-return decision to the Regional Court of Appeal, and the decision is enforced once it becomes final. Enforcement is the stage at which Turkish practice differs most from other countries. Return and contact orders are enforced without the service of a separate delivery order, through the judicial support and victim services offices (Adli Destek ve Mağdur Hizmetleri Müdürlüğü) attached to the courts, in the presence of a psychologist, pedagogue or social worker, and in the presence of the applicant or a person the applicant designates. The person holding the child must disclose the child's whereabouts on request; premises may be opened by force; and the police must assist when asked in writing by the judicial support office. Delivery is postponed only where the expert finds that it would place the child's physical or mental development in serious danger, and only until the danger ends.
The law also penalises obstruction. A person who hides the child during enforcement, who removes the child again after enforcement, who helps another person do so, or who does not comply with the court's measures faces the sanctions of the child protection legislation, and a second removal may also be prosecuted under the Turkish Penal Code as abduction or retention of a child. In our practice the enforcement stage is planned with the judicial support office in advance: the date, the place, the presence of the applicant, the travel documents for the child and the flight, so that the return happens in one step rather than in a series of attempts that the child experiences as repeated conflict.
Where return is refused, the Turkish court may proceed to decide custody, and the applicant parent's remedies shift to the custody case in Turkey, to contact arrangements, and to the recognition of any later Turkish decision abroad. Where return is ordered and the applicant lives abroad, a lawyer in Turkey with a power of attorney manages the appeal, the enforcement and the travel formalities without the applicant travelling more than once. Our note on recognising foreign divorces in Turkey covers the recognition of foreign family judgments, which often runs alongside these cases.
Children taken from Turkey abroad, non-Convention countries and prevention
The procedure also runs outwards. A parent in Turkey whose child has been taken to another contracting state applies to the Turkish Central Authority, which transmits the application to the Central Authority of that state; the return case is then heard by the courts of the country where the child is, under that country's procedure, and a lawyer there is ordinarily needed. The Turkish side of the file consists of the custody position under Turkish law, which gives married parents joint custody and allocates custody after divorce by court order, evidence of the child's habitual residence in Turkey, and the Turkish court orders already in force. Where the child has been taken to a country that is not a party to the Convention, or to a country whose accession Turkey has not accepted, there is no return mechanism: the remedies are a custody order in Turkey, its recognition and enforcement abroad where that country's law allows, criminal proceedings in Turkey, and diplomatic channels through the consulates.
Prevention is cheaper than any return case. A parent who fears that the other parent will take the child abroad can ask the family court for a ban on the child leaving Turkey and for the deposit of the child's passport, as an interim measure within a pending divorce or custody case or as a separate application. Turkish border police enforce exit bans registered against the child. Where the parents agree to foreign travel, a notarised consent of the other parent (muvafakatname) stating the destination and the return date is the document that airlines and the border authorities of many destination countries ask for, and it later proves that the travel was consented to for a fixed period only, which is the foundation of a retention case if the child is not brought back. Our service page on divorce law in Turkey covers the custody and contact orders within which these measures are usually made. Practice may vary by authority and year.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Turkey a party to the Hague Child Abduction Convention? Yes, since 2000. The Ministry of Justice is the Central Authority and acts through the local chief public prosecutors, who file return cases before the family courts.
- My child was brought to Turkey for a holiday and not returned. Is that abduction? If the child was habitually resident abroad and you hold rights of custody, keeping the child in Turkey after the agreed return date is a wrongful retention under the Convention, and a return application can be made from that date.
- Which court hears the return case in Turkey, and who files it? The family court of the place where the child is. The case is filed by the chief public prosecutor on behalf of the Central Authority; the left-behind parent may also instruct a lawyer in Turkey and take part in the proceedings.
- Can the other parent get custody in Turkey and refuse to return the child? No. A custody case opened in Turkey is stayed while the return case is pending, and a custody order obtained after the return application is not a ground for refusing return.
- On what grounds can a Turkish court refuse to return a child? Where more than a year has passed and the child is settled, where the applicant consented or acquiesced, where return would expose the child to a grave risk of harm, where a sufficiently mature child objects, or where return would breach fundamental human rights principles. The parent opposing return must prove the exception.
- How is a return order enforced? After it becomes final, through the judicial support offices with an expert present, with police assistance where needed, and in the presence of the applicant or a person the applicant designates. Hiding the child or removing the child again is penalised.
- How long does a return case take in Turkey? The Convention sets a six-week target. Turkish family courts hear these cases with priority, but a contested case with an expert report and an appeal ordinarily takes longer; complete evidence at filing shortens it.
- How can I stop my child being taken out of Turkey? By asking the family court for an exit ban and the deposit of the child's passport, which the border police enforce, and by giving travel consent only in a notarised document that states the destination and the return date.
Author: Av. Mirkan Günay Topcu, Managing Partner, ER&GUN&ER Law Firm, Istanbul Bar No. 67874. He represents left-behind and taking parents in Hague Convention return proceedings before the Turkish family courts, in the related custody and contact cases, and in the recognition of foreign family judgments in Turkey. Education: Istanbul University Faculty of Law (2018); Galatasaray University, LL.M. (2022).
Profile: Av. Mirkan Günay Topcu. LinkedIn: Profile. Istanbul Bar Association: Official website.