Official Gazette / March 30 – April 5, 2026

A fundamental change has been made to the Regulation on Local Administration Budget and Accounting, digitizing the budget and accounting systems of local administrations and connecting them to a common system that the central administration will monitor in real-time. The technical changes made include features that limit the capacity of municipalities to manage their own revenues independently and subject municipal finance to greater central oversight. 

The Personal Data Protection Board, in its principle decision dated 18.02.2026, ruled that the practice of posting the dues and other debt information of residents in apartment buildings and housing complexes in common areas is contrary to personal data protection legislation and that this practice must be terminated.

With the Regulation on the Protection and Use of Agricultural Lands, the legal status of structures such as bungalows, hobby gardens, and vineyard houses has become controversial. Similar regulations were already in effect, but now the implementing regulation has also entered into force. The general goal of the regulation is to protect agricultural lands. It has become mandatory to obtain permits and comply with soil protection projects for agricultural structures and non-agricultural land uses. The demolition of unauthorized structures and the restoration of land for agricultural production will be the responsibility of municipalities. Structures for which a demolition order has been issued and which are not demolished by the municipality within 1 month may also be demolished by the Ministry. Provided that there is at least 1 decare of land, agricultural structures with a maximum base area of 30 m2 and a maximum of 2 floors can be built. At least 5 decares will be required for a vineyard house. Only 1 vineyard house can be built on each parcel, and each family will be granted permission for 1 vineyard house within the same district boundaries. In planted agricultural lands, the land class cannot be changed before the economic life of the trees has expired. A demolition order will be issued for all structures such as illegal bungalows, containers, and vineyard houses built on agricultural lands. In parcels with multiple stakeholders, the consent of all stakeholders will be required.

The Regulation on Occupational Health and Safety Training for Employees has been published, and the 2013 regulation has been repealed. With the new regulation, all workplace employees, including apprentices and interns, will be required to have completed their training before actually starting work. The cost of occupational health and safety training cannot be reflected directly or indirectly to employees, and the time spent in these trainings will be counted as working time. If the training exceeds the weekly working hours, it will be considered overtime. All training and certificates obtained during the previous regulation period will be considered valid. 

With the Industrial Registry Communiqué (Sgm 2026/4), the old communiqué was repealed. All transactions have been completely digitized through the Industrial Registry Information System (SSBS). A rule has been introduced requiring that the physical areas of businesses operating at the same address be separate from each other, and the use of shared machinery and personnel has been prohibited. 

The Communiqué on Workplace Hazard Classes Regarding Occupational Health and Safety has been amended, and the installation, maintenance, and repair works of air conditioning systems have been moved to the very hazardous class. Business lines such as water transport, repair of household electrical appliances, food supplements, and production of entertainment equipment have been moved to the hazardous class. Computer programming, architecture-interior design services, psychologists and psychotherapists, and social media and content production services have been classified as less hazardous.

With the Rural Development Investment Program Communiqués, drip irrigation, sprinkler irrigation, micro-sprinkler and subsurface drip irrigation, center pivot/linear irrigation, drum irrigation, and solar-powered irrigation have been included within the scope of grant support. Grant support ranging from 50% to 70% will be provided for accepted projects. Applications made by women and young people will be evaluated with priority. Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises will also be able to receive 50%-70% grant support for investments in the processing, packaging, and storage of agricultural products, agricultural production, aquaculture, processing, packaging, and storage of fertilizers of animal and vegetable origin, joint machinery park investments for agricultural organizations, beekeeping, digitalization in agriculture, data management, sensor and Internet of Things (IoT)-based smart agriculture applications, artificial intelligence-based decision support systems and production monitoring technologies, the use of robotics, automation, and image processing systems in agriculture, other agricultural informatics systems, and silkworm breeding.

The Regulation on Personnel Shuttle Services for Public Institutions and Organizations has been amended, granting public officials permission to allow their children in preschool education to board as passengers in personnel shuttle vehicles, provided that the relevant permits are obtained.