November 11-17 Official Gazette

I am sharing a summary of developments from the laws, decrees, regulations, circulars, and other legislation issued by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM), the President, ministries, and public legal entities published in the Official Gazette between November 11 and 17.

With Presidential Decree No. 9124, the Decision on Amending the Decision on Providing Project-Based State Aid to Investments was put into effect. A minimum amount of 100 Million TL was set for investments decided to be supported within the scope of the Technology-Oriented Industry Move Program, and 2 Billion TL for other investments. The support decision will be made by the President.

The Revenue Administration of the Ministry of Treasury and Finance published Communiqué No. 573 on Amending the Tax Procedure Law General Communiqué No. 509. It enabled the issuance of expense vouchers and producer receipts in an electronic environment. E-waybills have been made mandatory for those subject to the Construction Steel Tracking System whose sales revenue is 1 Million TL or more. As of 1.1.2025, it has become mandatory to issue invoices totaling 3 Thousand TL or more as e-Archive invoices. From 1.1.2026, all invoices will be issued as e-Archive invoices regardless of the amount.

The Council of State Tax Litigation Chambers Board ruled (2024/3 E. and 2024/9 K.) that if taxpayers are included in the scope of taxpayers subject to special principles for more than one reason, a separate administrative action is established for each reason, and therefore separate lawsuits can be filed for each action, and this does not cause a lis pendens (pending lawsuit) situation.

The Ministry of Industry and Technology published the Communiqué on Amending the Communiqué on Strategic Priority and Technical Evaluation of Investment Projects. In addition to the requirement that the total investment amount, including R&D expenditures, must be at least 1 billion TL, the condition that the equity amount must be at least 50 million TL and the interest support within the scope of the incentive certificate have been relaxed in favor of the investor.

The Constitutional Court ruled that the prohibition against ill-treatment was violated and awarded 100 thousand TL in non-pecuniary damages to a convict who was left helpless after their application to the Enforcement Judgeship regarding poor conditions for humane living in prison was rejected on the grounds that it did not fall within the judge's jurisdiction. The High Court has issued a decision parallel to its past decisions that enforcement judgeships are broadly authorized in every aspect of execution in prison.

The Law on Amending Certain Laws, numbered 7531, which is popularly known as the 9th Judicial Package and is an omnibus law in terms of legislative technique, was accepted by the TBMM on November 7, 2024, and entered into force by being published in the Official Gazette on November 14, 2024. With the 9th Judicial Package;

-The electronic tender procedure in the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law has been changed. With the new regulation, the minimum bid rate was increased from 0.1% to 0.5%. In the old system, the tender process was extended by ten minutes for a single time with a new bid made in the last ten minutes before the tender ended. This caused the tender participant who submitted the highest bid to the system in the last second to win the tender unfairly. In the new regulation, a bid received in the last ten minutes will extend the tender by three minutes, and with each new bid, the tender will extend by three minutes each time, up to a total of 1 hour. In addition, the Ministry of Justice has been authorized to change this period. Thus, if a problem arises in practice, the ministry will be able to solve the problem with a regulation change without needing a new law. Furthermore, in the Objection Removal and Cancellation Lawsuits where the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law is applied and other lawsuits, the finality limit for files returned from the appellate court or the Supreme Court of Appeals will be based on the limit on the date of the first decision. Thus, it was prevented that many files became final after returning from the higher court due to inflation. The effect of inflation is even reflected in laws. With the last change in the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law, the rounding of the finality limit, which is determined at the beginning of each year, was moved from the tens digit to the thousands digit. In other words, we are no longer counting by 10s, but by 1000s.

-A change was made to the legal aid allowance of the Attorneyship Law. Now, 30% of the total budget to be collected for legal aid will be divided equally among the numbered bar associations in the province. The rest will be distributed according to the number of lawyers. Thus, in terms of legal aid, number 2 bar associations will receive many times more legal aid allowance compared to their population. This means more budget and allowance to reach large masses of people in need of legal aid.

-By amending the Law on Judges and Prosecutors, the duties and powers of justice inspectors were regulated in detail and significantly expanded.

-In the Turkish Civil Code, following the Constitutional Court's cancellation decision, the paternity denial lawsuit was reorganized, and a 1-year statute of limitations from birth was imposed on the mother to file a paternity denial lawsuit between the child and the father. This means that the woman cannot apply in the following years claiming that the child she gave birth to is actually from someone else.

-By amending the Turkish Penal Code, the complaint period for the crime of insult, which is subject to complaint, was limited to two years. Insult crimes were included in the scope of advance payment, except for insults against a public official. Thus, if the judicial authorities think that the insult has taken place in complaints about insults between citizens, the perpetrator will be given time to pay the determined administrative fine in ten days, and if paid, no public lawsuit will be filed against them. It has been a practical solution after our alert citizens have opened thousands of complaint files via social media and become rich recently. It should be remembered that members of parliament are also considered public officials. As a result, we can insult each other and politicians within the scope of advance payment, and civil servants and deputies in our hearts. However, ongoing investigations and lawsuits will not be affected by this change.

-In the Criminal Procedure Code, the internet-based version of insult was removed from the scope of conciliation. In cases subject to conciliation, the response time for conciliation was increased from 3 days to 7 days. It was added to the law that the new conciliators to be recruited will only be law school graduates. Before the Constitutional Court's 2023 cancellation decision, filing a compensation lawsuit after conciliation was prevented. With the new regulation, it was legislated that a compensation lawsuit cannot be filed due to the crime subject to investigation, except for damages that could not be detected at the time of conciliation or that emerged after conciliation.

-By adding to the Law on Mediation in Civil Disputes, it was legislated that after obtaining an enforceability annotation on the settlement document, a registration request can be made to the land registry office unilaterally. In case of non-participation in mediation, the obligation to pay all litigation expenses at the end of the trial was reduced to being responsible for half.

With Presidential Decree No. 9140, the Memorandum of Understanding on Law Enforcement Training Cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Turkey and the Government of Palestine was approved. The memorandum was signed in Ramallah on May 24, 2002, by the deputy interior ministers of the two countries.

With Presidential Decree No. 9141, changes were made to the borders of 27 plains, and 28 plains in 19 provinces were determined as great plain protection areas. Plains where deterioration is developing rapidly despite having high agricultural production potential can be determined as great plain protection areas in accordance with the Soil Conservation and Land Use Law. For immovable properties located in these plains, approved planned areas and areas that have been granted non-agricultural use permits as of today are excluded from the scope. Babakonağı Plain (Aksaray), Türkhöyük Plain (Ankara), Acıkuyu Plain (Ankara), Çıldır Plain (Ardahan), Sazakiçi Plain (Bolu), Yazı Plain (Burdur), Çerkeş Plain (Çankırı), Keşan Plain (Edirne), İpsala Plain (Edirne), Tunca Plain (Edirne), Küçükdoğanca Plain (Edirne), Otlukbeli Plain (Erzincan), Ünlükaya Plain (Erzurum), Bünyan Plain (Kayseri), Hamzalı Plain (Kırıkkale), Ocakbaşı Plain (Kırıkkale), Kuzuyaka Plain (Muğla), Ovaören Plain (Nevşehir), Tepeköy Plain (Nevşehir), Kurtalan Plain (Siirt), Gökırmak Plain (Sinop), Karasu Plain (Sinop), Tekmen Plain (Sivas), Kocakurt Plain (Sivas), Artova Plain (Tokat), Ulubey Plain (Uşak), Çolpan Plain (Van), Hasantimur Plain (Van)

The Constitutional Court published a precedent decision (2020/23093 B. 15.2.2024 K.) in the Official Gazette stating that a conviction based on witness testimonies heard by different high criminal court judges is a violation of the right to a fair trial in accordance with equity within the scope of a fair trial. According to the evaluation, if there is no evidence other than the witness to be based on the verdict, the witnesses must either be heard by the same judges or a conclusion must be reached by being heard by the appellate panel at the appellate stage. In practice, judge appointments have always been a situation that slows down and disrupts judicial work. So, in fact, many judicial files in our country are in this state; we are a country with low quality of justice. I am sure that the new justice inspectors to be appointed will also take these into account.

Communiqué No. 16 on Amending the Customs General Communiqué (Transit Regime) No. 4 by the Ministry of Trade was published in the Official Gazette and entered into force. Turkey has started to use the current version of the "New Computerized Transit System" (NCTS) in the "Common Transit Regime", to which the European Union and the European Free Trade Association, the United Kingdom, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Ukraine are parties. The communiqué includes regulations regarding the NCTS used in all transit regimes. In this way, it is possible to transport goods under the common transit regime with a single declaration and a single guarantee.

The Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) published the Communiqué on Amending the Communiqué on the Regulation of the Last Resort Supply Tariff and made changes to the communiqué dated 20.01.2018. The EPDK's communiqué on the subject was published in the Official Gazette. The lower limit of the last resort supply tariff for high-consumption consumers has been increased. In consumer groups where the tiered tariff is applied, the high-tier tariff will be taken as a basis. The change enters into force on January 1, 2025.

The Regulation on Amending the Ports Regulation by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure was published in the Official Gazette and entered into force. With the amendment, the provisions of the regulation regarding the port exit document were reorganized. Port exit permits for yachts, excursion boats, and other maritime tourism vehicles engaged in tourism activities will be given with a cruising permit document. In this case, the cruising permit document will replace the port exit document. A port exit document will not be issued for ships not engaged in commercial activities.