Alimony in Turkey (nafaka) is not one payment but four under the Turkish Civil Code (Türk Medeni Kanunu): interim maintenance ordered while a divorce case runs, poverty alimony for a former spouse who would otherwise fall into poverty, child maintenance paid by the parent without custody, and maintenance between relatives in need; a former spouse receives poverty alimony only if they would fall into poverty and were not more at fault for the divorce, the claim must be made in the divorce case or within one year of the judgment, and the payment ends on remarriage, death or cohabitation. This article explains each kind, how the family court sets the amounts and whether they are indexed, how long child maintenance lasts and what happens when the child turns eighteen, how an award is changed or ended, how an unpaid award is enforced through the enforcement office, including the coercive detention that makes Turkish maintenance enforcement unusual, and how the rules apply where one spouse is foreign or lives abroad, with the Constitutional Court's 2026 decision on the duration of poverty alimony and what it changes from 2027.
- Interim maintenance is ordered at the start of the divorce case, often at the first hearing, for the spouse and the children, and runs until the judgment.
- Poverty alimony requires poverty after the divorce and fault no heavier than the other spouse's; the payer's fault is not required, and the claim is lost one year after the divorce becomes final.
- Child maintenance is set on the child's needs and the parent's means, lasts to eighteen and continues through education on the adult child's own claim.
- Awards are increased only if the judgment says so or on a later application; they end on the recipient's remarriage or death and can be ended for cohabitation.
- Unpaid maintenance is collected by the enforcement office with wage garnishment beyond the ordinary limit, and non-payment can lead to up to three months' coercive detention on the creditor's complaint.
The four kinds of maintenance
Interim maintenance (tedbir nafakası) is ordered by the family court (Aile Mahkemesi) as a protective measure while a divorce or separation case is pending, for the spouse who cannot support themselves and for the children living with one parent, and it runs from the date of the application or the hearing until the judgment becomes final, when it is replaced by the final orders. Poverty alimony (yoksulluk nafakası) is the post-divorce maintenance of a former spouse: a spouse who will fall into poverty because of the divorce, and whose fault in the breakdown was not heavier than the other's, may claim maintenance from the other in proportion to the other's financial means, without the payer having to be at fault at all. Child maintenance (iştirak nafakası) is the contribution of the parent who does not hold custody to the child's upkeep and education, ordered in the divorce judgment and payable to the custodial parent for the child. Maintenance between relatives (yardım nafakası) is owed by ascendants, descendants and siblings to a relative who would fall into poverty without it, and is the route by which an adult child in education claims support after eighteen.
The four are claimed and decided differently. Interim maintenance is decided on the application and the parties' statements without full evidence, because it is a measure and not a judgment; poverty alimony and child maintenance are decided in the divorce judgment on the evidence of needs and means; relatives' maintenance is a separate action before the family court by the person in need. A claim for poverty alimony not made in the divorce case must be made within one year of the divorce judgment becoming final, after which it is lost, while child maintenance can be claimed at any time during the child's minority and relatives' maintenance whenever the need arises. In our practice a spouse who does not want poverty alimony at the time of the divorce is advised of the one-year period in writing, because the omission is irreversible.
Maintenance is personal to the parties: the right cannot be assigned or inherited, and a waiver of future poverty alimony before the divorce, in a prenuptial or other agreement, has no effect under the Court of Cassation's settled view, because the right has not yet arisen; a waiver in the protocol of a consensual divorce, approved by the court, is valid, because the divorce is the event that creates the right. Mandatory mediation does not apply to divorce and maintenance cases. Our practice page on divorce law in Turkey covers the divorce itself; this article covers the money. Practice may vary by authority and year.
Interim maintenance while the case runs
The judge is required to take the measures the spouses' and the children's situation needs as soon as a divorce case is filed, and the first of them is money: a spouse who has no income or whose income does not cover the household asks for interim maintenance in the petition or at the first hearing, and the court orders a monthly amount from the filing date, together with interim maintenance for each child living with that spouse, on the basis of the parties' declared incomes, the children's ages and the standard of living shown in the file. The order is enforceable at once through the enforcement office, is not suspended by an appeal, and is varied by the court during the case where the circumstances change; it ends with the final judgment, which replaces it with the final child maintenance and, if claimed and justified, poverty alimony.
The parent who leaves the family home during the case and leaves the children with the other parent is ordered to pay interim maintenance for the children from the start; the spouse who stays in the family home with the children usually also obtains the allocation of the home for the duration of the case. Fault plays no role at this stage, since the court has not yet decided it, and the amount is modest in most files because the court works from payslips and declared income; a spouse whose real means are higher than their declared income is examined through the bank and tax records later, and the interim amount is corrected rather than reconsidered from scratch.
Foreign spouses obtain interim maintenance like Turkish ones, in Turkish lira, and a foreign spouse who leaves Turkey during the case collects it through the enforcement office under a power of attorney. In our practice the interim application is made in the petition with the bank statements and the children's school and health expenses attached, because the first hearing is often months away and the court may decide the measure on the file before it. Our practice page on the Turkish divorce lawyer covers the divorce case from the petition onwards.
Poverty alimony: conditions, fault, amount and the change from 2027
Poverty alimony has three conditions. The claimant must fall into poverty because of the divorce, which the Court of Cassation reads as being unable to meet the necessary expenses of living, housing, food, health and clothing, at the level a person in the claimant's position needs; an income at or around the minimum wage has not, in the Court's practice, been treated as excluding poverty, while ownership of income-producing property or a regular salary above it has. The claimant's fault in the breakdown must not be heavier than the other spouse's, so a spouse found equally at fault may still claim and a spouse found mainly at fault may not; the fault is the one the divorce judgment itself establishes. And the amount must be proportionate to the payer's financial means, so that a payer with a minimum income pays little, whatever the claimant's need. The payer's own fault is not a condition: a spouse who was the innocent party may still be ordered to pay.
The court sets a monthly amount on the evidence of the parties' incomes, assets, ages, health, education and earning capacity and the standard of living during the marriage, without a formula, and may on request order that the amount rise each year by a published index, usually the producer or consumer price index; without such a clause the amount stays fixed until one party applies to change it, which in an inflationary economy means an application every year or two. The award may be a lump sum or periodic payments, and in a consensual divorce the parties fix the amount, the index and the duration in the protocol, which the court approves unless it is contrary to the children's interests or the law. A time-limited award has always been possible where the court expected the need to end, but the statute allowed, and most judgments gave, alimony without a time limit.
That is changing. In 2026 the Constitutional Court annulled the word "indefinitely" in the poverty alimony provision, finding it contrary to the Constitution, and deferred the effect of the annulment by nine months from the publication of the reasoned decision, so that the annulment takes effect on 30 June 2027; until then the existing rule applies, and Parliament is expected to set new rules on duration, with the fate of existing awards depending on the transitional provisions of whatever law is enacted. In our practice a judgment given now is drafted with the change in mind, with the duration, the index and the review mechanism addressed expressly rather than left to the statute, and no payer stops paying on the strength of the decision, because an award in force is enforced regardless of what the law will say next year. Practice may vary by authority and year.
Child maintenance: amount, duration and the adult child
The parent who does not hold custody contributes to the child's care and education in proportion to their means, and the court sets the monthly amount on the child's age, schooling, health and the standard of living of both parents, paying it to the custodial parent, who spends it for the child; the custodial parent's own contribution is their care and their share of the costs. There is no table or percentage: a private school, a chronic condition or a foreign parent's higher income raise the amount, and the court may index it annually on request as with poverty alimony. Child maintenance is ordered even where the custodial parent did not claim it, because it is the child's right, and the parents cannot waive it on the child's behalf; a protocol in a consensual divorce that sets it too low is corrected by the court.
The obligation lasts until the child reaches eighteen, and ends earlier if the child marries or is declared adult by the court. Where the child is still in education at eighteen, the obligation to contribute continues until the education ends, but the claim changes hands: the adult child claims the contribution in their own name, as maintenance between relatives, against the parent, and the custodial parent's enforcement of the old order stops at the child's eighteenth birthday. In practice the adult student files a new action or the parents agree a continuation, and the Court of Cassation has applied the continuation to university and comparable full-time education pursued in the ordinary course rather than to studies resumed after years away.
Custody changes end the payer's obligation and reverse it, since the parent who gains custody becomes the recipient, and the change is ordered by the court on an application, not by the parents' private arrangement; a parent who takes the child without a court order keeps paying. Where the child lives abroad with the custodial parent, the Turkish order is enforced there under the conventions described below, and where the paying parent is abroad the same conventions bring the payment back. Our note on international child abduction in Turkey covers the case where a parent moves the child without consent, which the maintenance order does not authorise.
Changing, indexing and ending maintenance
Either party may apply to the family court to increase, reduce or remove maintenance where the financial situation of the parties has changed or where fairness requires it: a payer who loses their job, retires or falls ill applies to reduce; a recipient whose needs have grown or whose payer's income has risen applies to increase; and the court decides on the new evidence from the date of the application, not retroactively, so that arrears under the old order remain due. The application is a new action before the family court, with the same evidence of incomes and needs as the divorce, and in our files the commonest trigger is inflation outrunning a judgment that carried no index clause.
Poverty alimony ends by itself on the recipient's remarriage or the death of either party, and the payer stops without a court order, although a court order is obtained where the recipient disputes the event or enforcement continues. It is ended by the court, on the payer's application, where the recipient lives with another person as if married, which the Court of Cassation reads as a stable shared life rather than a relationship, where the recipient is no longer in poverty, or where the recipient leads a dishonourable life; proving cohabitation is the payer's burden and is done with witnesses, address records and, in practice, investigation evidence, which the courts weigh with care. Child maintenance ends on the child's majority, marriage, death or a change of custody, and is not affected by the custodial parent's remarriage.
An award made in a consensual divorce is changed under the same rules, because the protocol becomes a judgment; the parties cannot bind the court to a fixed amount forever, but the clause they agreed is the starting point of any later application. Arrears are a debt like any other, subject to limitation, and a recipient who waits for years loses the oldest months. Our practice page on the Turkish family lawyer covers the applications to change and end maintenance.
Enforcement: the enforcement office, garnishment and coercive detention
A maintenance order, interim or final, is enforced through the enforcement office (İcra Dairesi) like any judgment: the recipient files the order, the office serves a payment order on the debtor, and after the short period the law allows the office attaches wages, bank accounts, vehicles and real estate. Wages are the usual source, and maintenance is privileged: the current month's maintenance is deducted from the debtor's salary in full before any other creditor, outside the one-quarter limit that protects wages from ordinary creditors, and the arrears are collected within that limit alongside the rest; the employer deducts and pays the office on its notice, and an employer who does not is liable itself. A debtor abroad is pursued through the conventions below.
The sanction that distinguishes maintenance from other debts is coercive detention (tazyik hapsi): a debtor who does not pay maintenance ordered by a court after a payment order has been served may, on the complaint of the recipient to the enforcement criminal court (İcra Ceza Mahkemesi), be detained for up to three months, and the detention ends as soon as the debt is paid; the complaint must be made within three months of the non-payment it concerns and the detention concerns only the maintenance accrued after the payment order, so that each month's default supports a new complaint. The measure is not a criminal conviction and leaves no record, but it is applied, and in our experience the service of the complaint produces the payment more often than the detention itself.
The family court may also order security or the attachment of specific assets where the payer is likely to evade, and a payer who conceals income through a company or a relative is examined by expert on the bank, tax and trade registry records; a foreign payer who leaves Turkey with arrears is subject to the same enforcement on any asset left behind and to collection abroad. Our practice page on enforcement and bankruptcy law in Turkey covers the enforcement procedure, and our note on debt collection in Turkey the payment order mechanism in general.
Foreign spouses: applicable law, foreign orders and collection abroad
Where a spouse is foreign, the Turkish court first decides which law governs. Divorce and separation, and the maintenance between former spouses that follows them, are governed by the spouses' common national law, failing that by the law of their common habitual residence, and failing that by Turkish law, so that two Germans divorcing in Istanbul are divorced, and their poverty alimony decided, under German law applied by the Turkish judge, while a Turkish-German couple resident in Turkey are under Turkish law. Maintenance for children and relatives is governed by the law of the habitual residence of the person entitled, subject to the Hague maintenance conventions to which Turkey is a party. In our practice the foreign law is proved through the parties' submissions and the court's own research, and a foreign spouse who prefers Turkish rules examines early whether the national law would give less or more.
A foreign maintenance or divorce judgment is enforced in Turkey only after a Turkish family court declares it enforceable (tenfiz) under the Private International Law Code, on the conditions that the foreign court had jurisdiction under its own law, the judgment is final, it does not offend Turkish public policy, the defendant was properly summoned, and there is reciprocity, by treaty, law or practice, between Turkey and the state of the judgment; the amount differing from what a Turkish court would award is not a public policy objection. The maintenance conventions shorten the route: Turkey is a party to the 2007 Hague Child Support Convention, in force for it since February 2017, to the 1973 Hague conventions on maintenance and to the 1956 New York Convention, and under them a creditor applies through the Ministry of Justice as central authority to have a Turkish order recognised and collected in another contracting state, or a foreign order collected in Turkey, without a lawyer in the other country for the administrative stage.
Collection abroad still depends on the debtor having income or assets that the foreign state's enforcement can reach, and in files we handle the practical answer for a Turkish recipient whose former spouse has left is the convention application for child maintenance, which most states process, and security taken on Turkish assets before the spouse leaves for poverty alimony, which fewer states enforce. A foreign spouse ordered to pay maintenance by a Turkish court should assume that the order follows them through the conventions and that the arrears are collected on their next visit to Turkey. Our practice page on the marriage lawyer in Turkey covers the marriage and property regime questions that precede the maintenance ones.
Frequently asked questions
- Who can claim poverty alimony after a divorce in Turkey? A former spouse who would fall into poverty because of the divorce and whose fault in the breakdown was not heavier than the other's, in proportion to the other's means; the payer's fault is not required. The claim is made in the divorce case or within one year of the judgment becoming final.
- How long does poverty alimony last? Under the current statute without a time limit unless the judgment sets one, ending on the recipient's remarriage or either party's death, or on the court's order for cohabitation or the end of poverty. The Constitutional Court's 2026 annulment of the word "indefinitely" takes effect on 30 June 2027, and Parliament is expected to set new duration rules before then.
- How is child maintenance calculated and when does it end? On the child's needs and the paying parent's means, without a table, payable to the custodial parent until the child is eighteen; where the child is still in education the contribution continues on the adult child's own claim until the education ends.
- Does alimony increase automatically with inflation? Only if the judgment or the approved protocol contains an index clause, usually the producer or consumer price index; otherwise the amount stays fixed until a party applies to the family court to change it, and the change applies from the application date.
- What happens if the former spouse does not pay? The enforcement office garnishes wages, with the current maintenance deducted in full before other creditors, and attaches accounts and property; on the recipient's complaint the enforcement criminal court may order coercive detention of up to three months, lifted on payment.
- Can a prenuptial agreement exclude alimony? No. A waiver of poverty alimony before the divorce has no effect; a waiver in the protocol of a consensual divorce approved by the court is valid. Child maintenance cannot be waived by the parents at all.
- Can a Turkish alimony order be enforced abroad, or a foreign one in Turkey? Yes, through the 2007 Hague Child Support Convention and the earlier maintenance conventions, with the Ministry of Justice as central authority, and otherwise through recognition and enforcement before a Turkish family court, which requires finality, proper service, no breach of public policy and reciprocity.
Author: Av. Mirkan Günay Topcu, Managing Partner, ER&GUN&ER Law Firm, Istanbul Bar No. 67874. He advises foreign nationals and Turkish citizens married to foreigners on divorce, interim and post-divorce maintenance, child maintenance, the enforcement of maintenance orders in Turkey and abroad, and the recognition of foreign judgments. Education: Istanbul University Faculty of Law (2018); Galatasaray University, LL.M. (2022).
Profile: Av. Mirkan Günay Topcu. LinkedIn: Profile. Istanbul Bar Association: Official website. Related practice page: Turkish divorce lawyer.