Law No. 7571 Amending the Turkish Criminal Code, Certain Laws, And Decree Law No. 631 (“11th Judicial Package”) was published in the Official Gazette number 33118 dated 25 December 2025 and entered into force on the same date.
With the publication of the 11th Judicial Package, comprehensive amendments have been made to numerous laws, primarily including the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law No. 2004 (“EBL”), the Attorneyship Law No. 1136 (“Attorneyship Law”), the Criminal Procedure Code No. 5271 (“CPC”), and the Turkish Civil Code No. 4721 (“TCC”). Of the amendments under the 11th Judiciary Package, Article 11 entered into force on November 26, 2025, while the other articles came into effect as of their publication dates.
The amendments made under the EBL are as follows:
- Under Article 134/2, the persons entitled to request the annulment of a tender are specified. However, pursuant to the amendment, the sentence added to the second paragraph provides that if any person other than those specified submits a request for annulment, the enforcement court shall definitively reject such requests based on the file.
- Pursuant to the sentence added to Article 134/4, the procedure to be followed when the required security deposit or fee is not paid in full or at all in a request for annulment of a tender has been regulated. Accordingly, the court shall notify, through a written notice, that the security deposit and fee must be fully paid within a definitive two-week period; if they are not paid within the specified period, the request shall be definitively rejected based on the file.
- A comprehensive amendment has been made to Article 278, which regulates the annulment of gratuitous transfers, and the wording of the provision has been simplified. Under the amendment, the period during which transfers can be reviewed retrospectively has been reduced from two years to one year. Previously, this period began from the date of attachment, insolvency, or initiation of bankruptcy; under the new rules, it starts from the date of issuance of a provisional or final insolvency certificate, or an attachment report with the force of a final insolvency certificate, or from the commencement of bankruptcy. The transactions deemed as gifts under paragraphs (a), (b), and (c) have been redefined, and these paragraphs now establish a rebuttable legal presumption. In particular, the debtor, third parties, or subsequent transferees may prevent annulment of transfers by proving that the transfer was made for adequate consideration, including life annuity agreements, usufruct rights, or contracts to provide care until death, established in favor of the debtor or third parties.
- Additional Article 1, which regulates monetary limits, has been amended in paragraph 2 so that the amounts specified in Articles 363 and 364 are now applied based on the date of the complaint or the filing of the lawsuit, rather than the date the provision was originally issued.
The amendments made to the disciplinary provisions of the Attorneyship Law are as follows:
- Article 135, which governs disciplinary sanctions, has been amended to organize acts into separate clauses for each type of sanction, clearly specifying which act corresponds to which disciplinary penalty.
- Article 136, which governs the application of disciplinary sanctions, has been amended to specify the circumstances under which a higher or lower degree of sanction may be applied. In this context, if an attorney who has already received a disciplinary sanction commits a new disciplinary act within five years of the sanction becoming final, a sanction one degree higher shall be applied. Conversely, except for acts requiring disbarment, if a disciplinary act is committed for the first time, the provision allows for a sanction one degree lighter to be imposed.
- As a result of the amendments to Articles 135 and 136 concerning disciplinary sanctions, Article 155/2 has been repealed. In this context, Article 155, which regulates that individuals barred from employment cannot exercise their attorney-related powers, had a second paragraph referring to the disciplinary sanctions under Article 135; this paragraph was removed.
- Article 159, which regulates disciplinary investigations and the statute of limitations for sanctions, has been amended. Pursuant to the addition to paragraph 3, when the disciplinary board decides to await the outcome of a related proceeding, a provision has been introduced specifying the statute of limitations applicable to the authority to impose sanctions. Accordingly, this authority will lapse one year after the final court decision is notified to the relevant bar association. Furthermore, the final paragraph added to Article 159 provides that filing a lawsuit against a disciplinary investigation or proceeding interrupts the statute of limitations, and if the administrative measure is annulled by a court decision, a new investigation or proceeding must be conducted and a decision issued within two years from the notification to the relevant bar association or the Union of Turkish Bar Associations.
- Paragraph 2 of Article 160, which regulates the implementation of disciplinary decisions and the erasure of sanctions from the record, has been amended. Under the previous regulation, the possibility of erasure was limited to warnings, reprimands, and fines, while dismissal from employment was excluded. Under the new regulation, dismissal from employment has also been included among the sanctions that can be erased, with only disbarment being excluded. However, dismissals imposed due to recidivism remain outside the scope of this provision.
A new Article 128/A was added to the CPC following Article 128. In this context:
- Article 128/A introduces provisions regarding the suspension and seizure of accounts containing proceeds obtained through cybercrimes. Accordingly, where there is reasonable suspicion that offenses such as aggravated theft, aggravated fraud, or misuse of bank or credit cards have been committed, banks, payment service providers, or crypto-asset service providers may suspend the related accounts for up to 48 hours. In addition, the proceeds in the suspended accounts may be seized during the suspension period either by a court order or, in urgent cases, by a written order of the prosecutor. The requirement for a report as provided under Article 128 does not apply to seizures carried out under this provision. In this context, institutions issuing suspension orders are exempt from legal liability.
The amendments the pre-emption provisions of the TCC are as follows:
- Under the former version of Article 733, which regulates the prohibition on exercising the pre-emption right, waiver of the right, and the time limit for its exercise, the pre-emption right could not be exercised in sales made through compulsory auction. The new regulation expands this prohibition to also cover sales conducted under the Public Procurement Law No. 2886. In addition, the amendment to paragraph 4 of Article 733 preserves the time limit for exercising the pre-emption right as three months from the notification of the sale to the right holder, while reducing the maximum period from two years to one year. These amendments to Article 733 do not apply to sales made prior to the entry into force of the changes; for such sales, the previous provisions remain applicable.
- Under the previous version of Article 734, which regulates the exercise of the pre-emption right, the right holder was required to deposit the sale price and title deed fees within a period determined by the court. The new regulation clarifies how the sale price is to be determined and establishes the procedure if the amounts are not deposited within the specified period. Accordingly, the market value of the disputed share, as determined by the court, will serve as the basis for exercising the pre-emption right, and if this amount along with the title deed fees is not deposited within the definitive period set by the court, the registration decision cannot be issued. This amendment to Article 734 also applies to cases filed prior to its entry into force.
You can access the full text of the Law via this link.
