Key Amendments Introduced by the 12th Judicial Package

Law No. 7589 on Amendments to Certain Laws for the Effective and Efficient Functioning of the Judiciary (the “Law”) was published in the Official Gazette dated 31July 2026 and numbered 33326. The Law introduces numerous amendments requiring a careful review of the legal advice provided to clients and the legal strategies adopted in judicial proceedings. In particular, it introduces changes across various areas of law, including enforcement sales, certain procedural rules in civil and criminal litigation, statutory interest, the sale of immovable property inherited by multiple heirs, participation in fraud offences, compensation for bodily injury, and unquantified claims. Some of the relevant regulations are presented below.

Amendments to the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law (“EBL”)

The first auction for the sale of immovable property acquired through inheritance will be limited to the co-heirs:

Scope: Where all co-owners acquired the immovable property by inheritance and no third party holds title, the first auction in a dissolution-of-co-ownership sale will be conducted solely among the co-owner heirs.
Sale threshold: At this first heir-only auction, the bid must exceed 100% of the appraised value together with the other statutory amounts. If the sale is not completed, the general 50% threshold will apply at the second auction.

Transition: The special auction method may be used only once and will not apply to auctions announced before entry into force. (EBL Art. 114)

The exemption from the security deposit requirement for co-owners has been abolished:

Co-owners: The exemption previously available by reference to a co-owner’s share in a dissolution-of-co-ownership sale has been removed. Accordingly, heir or co-owner status alone will no longer create a security exemption. (EBL Art. 114/f6-7)

Sanctions for failure to pay the auction price on time have been strengthened:

Security and expenses: If the highest bidder fails to pay on time, the security will not be returned. It will first be applied to sale expenses, with the balance allocated to creditors or co-owners depending on the nature of the file.
Creditor or co-owner purchaser: If the defaulting purchaser is the creditor requesting the sale, 10% of the appraised value will be deducted from its claim and the sale expenses will be borne by it. If the purchaser is a co-owner, the entire security will be distributed among the other co-owners in proportion to their respective shares.

Administrative fine: An additional administrative fine equal to 5% of the unpaid bid will be imposed. (EBL Art. 114/7-9)

Amendments Concerning Statutory Interest

The fixed statutory interest rate will be replaced by a variable rate linked to the CBRT rediscount rate:

Calculation: Where the contract does not specify a rate, annual interest payable under the Turkish Code of Obligations and Turkish Commercial Code will equal 80% of the CBRT short-term credit rediscount rate applicable on 31 December of the preceding year.
Mid-year update: If the rediscount rate on 30 June differs by at least five percentage points from the preceding 31 December rate, 80% of the 30 June rate will apply in the second half of the year.

Effect: The statutory 12% base and the presidential rate-setting mechanism has ended. Statutory interest, which until recently was fixed at 24% pursuant to Presidential Decision No. 8485, will henceforth be determined under the new statutory formula. Contractually agreed interest rates are not directly altered. (Law No. 3095, Art. 1)

Amendments to the Turkish Criminal Code

A sentence reduction has been introduced for participation in fraud limited to providing a payment instrument or account:

Conditions: The sentence will be reduced by half where participation in fraud is limited to providing another person with payment instruments, such as a bank or credit card, or the information/tools required to use an account held with a bank, intermediary institution, payment service provider or crypto-asset service provider, for the purpose of obtaining an unlawful benefit.
Limit: The reduction applies only where participation is confined to that act; broader involvement in the fraudulent scheme does not automatically qualify.

Transition: Eligible cases under appellate review will be returned to the first-instance court. Certain persons at the enforcement stage may benefit from effective-remorse provisions if they fully compensate the victim within six months of notice. (Criminal Code Art. 158/4)

Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law

The regime governing the deferment of the announcement of the verdict (“HAGB”) has been revised:

Appeal: Subject to the statutory finality rules, a HAGB decision will be appealable to the regional court; where issued by a regional court or the Court of Cassation acting as first instance, it will be subject to cassation review. Review will cover procedural and substantive legality.
Confiscation and supervision: HAGB is expressly defined as preventing the judgment from producing legal consequences for the accused, except for confiscation. The five-year supervision period and compensation condition are restated.

Excluded offences: The exclusion is shifted from offences under the reform laws protected by Article 174 of the Constitution to the offences of torture and cruel treatment and offences committed by public officials in connection with their duties that may qualify as ill-treatment under Article 17 of the Constitution. (Criminal Procedure Code Art. 231/5-14)

Amendments to the Turkish Code of Obligations

The interest commencement date for bodily-injury and loss-of-support compensation has been divided by period:

Known-income period: Statutory interest will accrue from the date of the tort or other harmful event on the compensation calculated for the period during which the income of the injured party or the deceased is known.
Unknown-income period: Interest on compensation for the period in which that income cannot yet be known will run from the judgment date. Different portions of one compensation calculation may therefore carry interest from different dates.

Partial payments: Payments made for performance before the evidentiary phase begins will be deducted proportionally from the compensation amount determined as of the payment date. The rule applies only to torts or harmful events occurring after entry into force. (Code of Obligations Art. 55)

Amendments to the Code of Civil Procedure

Actions for unquantified claims have been abolished and a one-time increase is permitted in partial actions:

Unquantified claim: Article 107, which allowed an action where the amount could not be precisely determined on the filing date, is repealed. The former rule will continue to govern actions filed before entry into force.
Partial action: Where only part of a receivable is claimed, the claimant may increase the claim once in the same proceedings until the evidentiary phase ends, without being subject to the prohibition on expanding the claim.

The statute of limitation: For the increased portion, the statute of limitation will be deemed interrupted on the original filing date. The partial action will therefore become the principal mechanism for completing the amount claimed at a later stage. (Code of Civil Procedure Arts. 107 and 109/4)

The procedure for joinder and separation decisions has been changed:

Binding effect: For connected cases before courts in the same judicial district, the court where the first action was filed will become bound by the joinder decision once that decision becomes final.
Review: A joinder decision between courts in the same judicial district may be challenged only by appeal before the regional court. First-instance separation decisions and regional court joinder/separation decisions may be reviewed only together with the final judgment.

Effect on reversal: A joinder or separation issue reviewed with the final judgment will not, on its own, constitute grounds for the regional court to set aside the judgment or for the Court of Cassation to reverse it. (Code of Civil Procedure Arts. 166/1 and 168)

Appellate review has been expanded for decisions on the merits rendered anew by regional courts:

New test: Where a regional court accepts an appeal and re-decides on the merits, the portion of the claim accepted or dismissed will generally be appealable to the Court of Cassation if it exceeds the regional-appeal threshold in Article 341(2).
Exceptions: Where the regional court renders a new decision on the merits and the amount or value in dispute falls below the appeal threshold, no appeal to the Court of Cassation will be available if the difference between the first-instance decision and the regional court’s decision does not exceed the regional appeal threshold. Decisions concerning only litigation costs or attorneys’ fees are likewise excluded from appellate review.

Effect: Access to cassation review where the regional court replaces the first-instance outcome will now depend in part on the quantitative difference between the two decisions. (Code of Civil Procedure Art. 362/3)

Entry into Force and Transitional Provisions

Although the majority of the Law has entered into force, certain provisions will become effective on different dates:

Current status: The majority of the Law entered into force on 31 July 2026. However, certain provisions have entered into force or will enter into force on different dates, as set out below.
Deferred effective date: The provisions concerning judicial sales conducted within guardianship proceedings and the use of the Audio and Video Information System (SEGBIS) will enter into force three months after the date of publication.

File- and event-specific transition: Special transitional rules refer to matters including the auction announcement date, filing date, date of the regional administrative court decision, date of delivery to the Chief Public Prosecutor and date of the tort/harmful event. The applicable regime should therefore be determined separately for each matter. (Art. 26 and Provisional Art. 1 of the Law)