Court rules they were never married after divorce case is filed!

G.A., who lives in the Kapaklı district of Tekirdağ, applied to the court in 2019 to file for divorce, claiming that the marital union had been fundamentally shaken.

U.A., who filed a counter-lawsuit, stated that they were not officially married to the woman who is the mother of his 2 children, that he did not marry out of love, that he was not present during the marriage ceremony, and that he did not sign the marriage register himself, and therefore requested a declaration of the non-existence of the marriage.

The Çerkezköy 2nd Family Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff, accepting the reasons presented and concluding that the marriage was null and void due to the absence of a constitutive element of the marriage, and ruled that there was no need to issue a decision regarding the divorce case filed by the woman.

Upon the objection of the other party, the 38th Civil Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Court of Justice reviewed the file, overturned the decision on procedural grounds, and ruled that the two cases should be separated, that the case filed by U.A. should be finalized first, and that a decision regarding the divorce should be made thereafter.

In the retrial held at the local court on October 24, it was decided to accept U.A.'s case and declare the non-existence of the marriage.

THE MARRIAGE WAS PERFORMED WITHOUT HIS CONSENT

U.A.'s lawyer, Muhammed Ali Demirci, told an AA reporter that they filed a lawsuit for the declaration of the non-existence of the marriage after his client stated that he did not marry out of love and was not present at the official marriage ceremony held in the Çıldır district of Ardahan.

Stating that the wedding was held in Istanbul about 1 month later and that they conducted research to determine who was present at the wedding ceremony, Demirci said:

– A situation like this occurred in the file; they could not reach the marriage registry books for a long time. We later contacted the Çıldır District Population Directorate and finally found the marriage registry books. In the research we conducted there as a result of phone calls, the following result emerged: because village headmen (muhtars) had the authority to perform marriages at that time, the client's father, using his own influence, carried out such a process through whoever the muhtar was at that time.

– In other words, my client was definitely not present during that marriage. Some say his father signed it, others say the person he married signed it. We definitely do not know who signed it. We filed this lawsuit because we were sure it was not signed by our client. The forensic medicine department also conducted examinations regarding this. It turned out that the signature did not belong to our client.

“OUR CLAIM WAS THAT HE DID NOT WANT THIS MARRIAGE”

Stating that as a result of the trial, the local court decided to declare the non-existence of the marriage, Demirci expressed that the file was overturned on procedural grounds in the appellate court, and the same decision was made again in the retrial.

Demirci stated that the reasoned decision has not yet been published and said:

– After the reasoned decision is published, the other party will likely apply for an appeal again, but we do not believe that the result will change because everything has been revealed with all documents and witness statements. It may be a rare situation for Turkey, but our law also foresees that it is like this.

– We have laws, we have constitutive elements. The most fundamental reason regarding marriage is that the parties declare their consent in front of an official. Actually, a signature is not a condition of validity. Our claim was not just about the signature anyway. Our claim was that the client was not there when the marriage was performed and that he did not want this marriage. This was also determined by the court.

News Source: AA