TCK

What it means for you

It is built on intent: what a person knew and meant to do, not simply what happened around them. That principle is why two people caught up in the same investigation can end up in very different positions.

Commonly confused with

Not the Code of Criminal Procedure. TCK says what is a crime and what the sentence is; the CMK governs custody, statements, detention and the trial itself.

Where you meet this word

In the article numbers on an indictment, and in any summons that names an offence.

How the Code is laid out: a general part, then the offences themselves

Law No. 5237 was passed on 26 September 2004, published in Official Gazette No. 25611 of 12 October 2004, and — under its own Article 344 — entered into force on 1 June 2005, with two provisions on the clock earlier or later: Article 184 (construction pollution) took effect on the publication date itself, and the first paragraphs of Articles 181 and 182 (polluting the environment) two years after publication. Its numbered articles run from 1 to 345.

The Code has two Books. Book One — General Provisions (arts. 1-75) holds the rules that apply to every offence: principles, definitions, intent and negligence, defences, attempt, participation, sanctions and when a case or a sentence lapses. Book Two — Special Provisions (arts. 76-345) is where the offences themselves are defined — grouped by the interest they harm, not alphabetically.

The articles people actually ask about

Most questions about this Code come back to one of these articles. Where the Code's own wording decides the outcome, it is quoted.

• Art. 21 — intent (kast). "The occurrence of an offence depends on the existence of intent. Intent is the knowing and willing realisation of the elements defined in the legal definition of the offence." A person who foresees but does not want the result still acts with olası kast (possible intent) under para. 2 — and is sentenced close to the intentional scale, not the negligence one.
• Art. 22 — negligence (taksir). Negligent acts are punished only where the law expressly says so; negligence is defined as bringing about the result through a failure of care and attention, without foreseeing it. Bilinçli taksir (conscious negligence) — foreseeing the result but not wanting it — raises the penalty by a third to a half.
• Art. 35 — attempt (teşebbüs). A person who begins direct execution of an intended offence through acts capable of completing it, but cannot finish for reasons beyond their control, is liable for attempt; the sentence is cut to between a quarter and three-quarters of the completed offence's penalty (more for life-sentence offences, on a separate scale). Art. 36 excuses a defendant who voluntarily abandons the act or personally prevents the result.
• Art. 37 — principal liability (faillik). Everyone who jointly carries out the act defined in the offence is liable as a principal; using someone without capacity (a child, say) as a tool increases the user's penalty by a third to a half.
• Art. 38 — instigation (azmettirme). The person who talks someone else into committing an offence is sentenced as if they had committed it themselves — not on a reduced scale.
• Art. 39 — aiding (yardım etme). A lesser, defined role: encouraging, advising on method, supplying the means, or helping before or during the act. The penalty is cut from the principal's — by half in most cases, and capped at eight years outside the heaviest sentence bands.
• Art. 40 — the accessory rule (bağlılık kuralı). Participation requires only an intentional, unlawful act to exist; each participant answers for their own fault, and liability for participating requires the offence to have reached at least the attempt stage.
• Not in this Code: HAGB. The "postponement of the announcement of the verdict" that foreign defendants hear about is not a TCK rule at all — it sits in the Code of Criminal Procedure, CMK Art. 231, and depends on the sentence actually handed down (two years or less), not on which offence is charged.

How long the State has to prosecute, and how long a sentence can wait to be enforced

"Zamanaşımı" under this Code is not one number — it runs on a ladder tied to the sentence the offence carries, and prosecution (dava) and enforcement (ceza) each have their own ladder. Every figure below is the current text of Art. 66 and Art. 68.

For a defendant aged 12-15 when the act was committed, every figure above is halved; aged 15-18, two-thirds of it applies (Art. 66(2), 68(2)). Dava zamanaşımı is interrupted — and starts running again from zero — by taking the suspect's statement, a detention order, an indictment, or a conviction of any co-defendant (Art. 67); it can be extended this way up to half the original period again, but no further. For the small group of Book Two Part Four offences (against the State) carrying life or 10+ years committed abroad, Art. 66(7) switches zamanaşımı off entirely.

Whatever you opened the Code for

If this abbreviation reached you on a summons or an indictment, the subject you actually need is probably one of these:

• The criminal process for foreigners in Türkiye — custody, statements, detention and trial, which TCK itself does not cover; that is CMK's job.
• The two related entries: MASAK (laundering investigations that often sit alongside TCK offences) and tahdit (the entry-ban code a criminal file can trigger).
• Criminal defence — for an open investigation or charge.

Frequently asked questions

Statute: Turkish Criminal Code (TCK) No. 5237

How we help with this: Criminal Defense

Related terms

• MASAKThe Financial Crimes Investigation Board
• TahditEntry ban / restriction code

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