Father running along a path with a small child in winter

Child Custody in Turkey for Foreign Parents: How Courts Decide, Contact Rights and Relocation

By Av. Talha Yayla · October 14, 2026 · 13 min read

In Turkey (Türkiye), parents exercise custody jointly while they are married; on divorce the court awards custody to one parent on the basis of the child's best interests, and the other parent has a right of contact and a duty to contribute to the child's expenses. A parent's nationality is not a criterion: a foreign mother or father has the same standing as a Turkish one. Custody decisions can be changed whenever circumstances change, and removing a child from the country of habitual residence without the other parent's consent can lead to a return order under the Hague Child Abduction Convention.

This guide explains how Turkish courts decide custody and contact, which law applies in international families, how orders are enforced, what relocation abroad involves, and what to do if a child is taken to or from Turkey.

During marriage: joint custody (Civil Code, Art. 336(1)).
On divorce: custody belongs to the parent to whom the child is entrusted (Art. 336(3)); the court regulates the other parent's contact (Art. 182).
Unmarried parents: custody belongs to the mother (Art. 337).
Standard: the child's interests, especially health, education and moral development (Art. 182, 339).
Contact: every parent without custody may request appropriate personal relations (Art. 323); it can be restricted or withdrawn (Art. 324).
Changeable: new facts — remarriage, relocation, death — justify new measures (Art. 183).
Applicable law in divorce: the law governing the divorce under Law No. 5718, Art. 14(3).
Abduction: Turkey is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention.

Legal status of this guide. It reflects the Turkish Civil Code (No. 4721) and Law No. 5718 as currently in force, including the 2021 amendment to Article 182. Joint custody after divorce is not regulated in the Civil Code; the position described below rests on court practice. Last updated: October 2026.

What custody means in Turkish law

Custody (velayet) is the bundle of parental rights and duties over a minor: care, upbringing, education, representation and administration of the child's property. Parents take and implement the necessary decisions on the child's care and education with the child's interest in view; they give the child, according to their maturity, the opportunity to organise their own life and take their views into account as far as possible on important matters (Art. 339). They are the child's legal representatives towards third parties (Art. 342). The right to determine the child's religious education belongs to the parents (Art. 341).

Custody is distinct from contact — the right of the parent without custody to maintain a personal relationship with the child — and from child support.

Who has custody

Situation	Custody	Basis
Parents married and living together	Both, jointly	Art. 336(1)
Parents married but separated in fact, or judicially separated	The judge may give custody to one of them	Art. 336(2)
Divorce	The parent to whom the child is entrusted	Art. 336(3)
Death of one parent	The surviving parent	Art. 336(3)
Parents not married	The mother; if she is a minor, under guardianship, deceased or deprived of custody, the judge appoints a guardian or gives custody to the father according to the child's interest	Art. 337
Pending divorce case	Interim arrangement by the judge	Art. 169

For unmarried fathers the starting point is important: establishing paternity gives the father the status of parent and a right to contact, but not custody, which remains with the mother unless a court decides otherwise.

How courts decide

In granting a divorce or separation, the court regulates the parents' rights and their personal relations with the child after hearing the parents where possible and, if the child is under guardianship, the guardian and the guardianship authority (Art. 182(1)). The Civil Code does not list factors; they have been developed in practice around the child's interests:

The child's age and needs. Very young children are in most cases left with the mother unless there is a specific reason against it; this is a tendency, not a rule.
Who has actually cared for the child, and the continuity of the child's home, school and social environment.
Each parent's capacity — time, health, living conditions, conduct — and willingness to support the child's relationship with the other parent.
Keeping siblings together.
The child's own views. A child of sufficient maturity is heard, usually with the assistance of the court's experts, and the views are given weight in line with age and understanding.
Violence, neglect or addiction in either household.
Expert reports. Family courts work with psychologists, pedagogues and social workers, who interview the parents and the child and visit the homes. Their report carries considerable weight.

Not decisive in themselves: which parent was at fault in the breakdown of the marriage; which parent earns more; and nationality or religion. A foreign parent is not at a disadvantage in law. In practice, two issues arise more often for foreign parents — whether their residence status in Turkey is secure, and whether they intend to move abroad with the child — and both should be addressed openly with evidence.

Where the spouses divorce by agreement, their arrangement on custody and contact must be approved by the judge, who may alter it in the children's interests (Art. 166(3), 184(5)).

Joint custody after divorce

The Civil Code provides that on divorce custody belongs to the parent to whom the child is entrusted, and says nothing about joint custody after divorce. For years this was read as excluding it. More recently, Turkish courts — relying on Turkey's international commitments on the equality of spouses in relation to their children — have accepted joint custody after divorce in cases where both parents request it and it serves the child's interests, and have recognised foreign judgments granting joint custody as not contrary to public order.

The current position can be summarised cautiously as follows:

joint custody is possible where the parents agree and can cooperate;
it is not imposed on a parent who objects;
practice is not uniform, and the agreement should set out clearly where the child lives, how decisions are taken and how disagreements are resolved.

Contact rights

Each parent has the right to request appropriate personal relations with a child who is not under their custody or has not been left with them (Art. 323). In regulating contact, the child's interests — especially in terms of health, education and morals — are the basis (Art. 182).

Typical arrangements specify alternate weekends with overnight stays, a period during school holidays, and part of religious and public holidays, with times and handover places stated. For a parent living abroad, longer blocks during holidays and regular video calls are requested instead of weekends.
Mutual duties. Each parent must refrain from damaging the child's relationship with the other and from obstructing the child's education and upbringing (Art. 324(1)).
Restriction or withdrawal. If the child's peace is endangered by the contact, if a parent uses the right contrary to those duties or does not take a serious interest in the child, or for other important reasons, the right to contact may be refused or withdrawn (Art. 324(2)).
Warning on non-compliance. Since 2021 the court states in its judgment that custody may be changed if the requirements of the contact arrangement are not fulfilled, provided this is not contrary to the child's interests (Art. 182(2)).
Violence. Under Law No. 6284 an existing contact arrangement can be supervised, limited or suspended as a preventive measure; see protection orders in Turkey.

Young girl drawing at a table with coloured pencils — Family courts rely on reports by psychologists and social workers who meet the child and both parents.

Child support

The parent to whom custody is not given must contribute to the child's care and education expenses in proportion to their means (Art. 182). The amount is set according to the child's needs and both parents' financial situations; on request the judge may decide how the periodic payments will be adjusted in future years (Art. 182, last paragraph). Child support normally continues until majority, and beyond it while the child's education continues. It can be increased or reduced when circumstances change. Persistent non-payment of maintenance ordered by a court can lead to compulsory imprisonment on the creditor's complaint.

During the divorce proceedings, interim maintenance for the child is ordered as a temporary measure (Art. 169), under Turkish law even where a foreign law governs the divorce (Law No. 5718, Art. 14(4)).

Which court and which law

Court. Custody is decided by the family court. Within a divorce, it is the court hearing the divorce — that of either spouse's domicile or of the place where they last lived together for six months (Civil Code, Art. 168). The international jurisdiction of Turkish courts follows these domestic rules (Law No. 5718, Art. 40).
Applicable law in divorce. Custody and related issues in divorce are governed by the law applicable to the divorce: the spouses' common national law; if they have different nationalities, the law of their common habitual residence; failing that, Turkish law (Law No. 5718, Art. 14(1), (3)).
Outside divorce. The effects of the parent–child relationship are governed by the law that established it; but if the mother, father and child have a common national law, that law applies, and failing that the law of their common habitual residence (Law No. 5718, Art. 17).
Public order. A foreign rule is not applied where its result would be manifestly contrary to Turkish public order — for example a rule that allocates custody automatically by the parent's sex or religion without regard to the child's interests.
Foreign custody orders take effect in Turkey through recognition or enforcement; see recognition of a foreign divorce in Turkey. They do not prevent a Turkish court from making a new decision when circumstances have changed.

Changing custody

Custody decisions never become final in the sense of being unalterable. Where new facts make it necessary — such as a parent's remarriage, move to another place or death — the judge takes the required measures of the court's own motion or at the request of either parent (Art. 183). Remarriage of the custodial parent does not in itself require removal of custody, but custody may be transferred where the child's interest so requires (Art. 349).

The court may also intervene to protect the child: if the child's welfare and development are endangered and the parents do not or cannot remedy the situation, the judge takes appropriate protective measures (Art. 346); the child may be placed with a family or in an institution (Art. 347); and as a last resort custody may be removed altogether where the parents cannot perform their duties or do not show the child sufficient care (Art. 348).

Typical grounds for a change of custody: persistent obstruction of contact; neglect of the child's schooling or health; violence or substance abuse in the home; the child's own settled wish at an age where it carries weight; and relocation that would sever the child's relationship with the other parent.

Enforcing custody and contact orders

Since 2021, court decisions on the handover of a child and on contact are no longer carried out by enforcement offices. They are implemented through the directorates of legal support and victim services attached to the Ministry of Justice, with the involvement of specialists such as psychologists and social workers, at designated handover centres, and without fees. The aim is to keep children away from enforcement officers and police wherever possible.

A parent who does not comply with a handover or contact order may be subjected to disciplinary imprisonment on complaint, and — as noted above — persistent non-compliance is now an express ground for reconsidering custody.

Travel and relocation abroad

During the marriage, both parents hold custody. Significant decisions, including moving the child's residence to another country, require both parents' agreement or a court decision.
After divorce, the custodial parent decides where the child lives. But a move abroad that would make the other parent's contact impossible or very difficult is a new fact under Article 183: the other parent can ask the court to revise contact or to transfer custody, and the custodial parent should seek a revised contact order before moving.
Passports and exit. Applications for a minor's passport and the practical requirements for exit with one parent depend on who holds custody; a court order or the other parent's notarised consent is commonly requested where custody is joint. Check the current requirements before travelling.
Court-ordered travel restrictions. Where there is a real risk of removal, a court can order measures to prevent the child from being taken abroad.
The foreign parent's own status. A foreign custodial parent needs a lawful basis of stay in Turkey; where no ordinary permit is available, a humanitarian residence permit may be granted where the best interests of the child are at stake (Law No. 6458, Art. 46(1)(a)). See Residence Permit After Divorce in Turkey.

International child abduction

Turkey is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and has implementing legislation. Between Turkey and other contracting states:

a child under sixteen who has been wrongfully removed from, or retained outside, the state of habitual residence in breach of custody rights is to be returned promptly;
the application is made through the Central Authority — in Turkey, the Ministry of Justice — of either state;
the court deciding the return does not decide custody; it decides only whether the child should go back so that the courts of the habitual residence can decide;
if proceedings are started more than one year after the removal, return may be refused where the child is settled in the new environment;
return may also be refused in limited cases — notably a grave risk that return would expose the child to physical or psychological harm, or the objection of a child of sufficient age and maturity.

Practical consequences for both sides:

If you are thinking of leaving Turkey with your child without the other parent's consent, do not. Obtain consent in writing or a court order first. This applies equally to a parent fleeing a bad marriage; if there is violence, use the protection and custody procedures in Turkey.
If your child has been taken to Turkey, contact the Central Authority in your country at once and instruct a lawyer in Turkey; speed matters because of the one-year period.
If your child has been taken from Turkey to a state that is not a party to the Convention, the remedies depend on that state's law and on diplomatic channels, and are far less predictable.

Removing a child in breach of the other parent's custody rights can also constitute a criminal offence under the Turkish Penal Code.

Facing a custody dispute, a relocation question or an abduction situation? Tell us both parents' nationalities, where the child lives and whether any court order exists. Message Yayla Law on WhatsApp or use the contact form. In abduction cases, time limits start running from the day of removal.

Frequently asked questions

Can a foreign parent get custody in Turkey?

Yes. Nationality is not a criterion. The court decides on the basis of the child's best interests, considering who has cared for the child, each parent's circumstances, the child's views and expert reports. A foreign parent has the same legal standing as a Turkish parent.

Who gets custody after divorce in Turkey?

The parent to whom the court entrusts the child. Very young children are usually left with the mother unless there is a reason not to, but this is a tendency rather than a rule. The other parent has a right of contact and must contribute to the child's expenses.

Is joint custody possible in Turkey?

During marriage custody is joint. After divorce the Civil Code gives custody to one parent, but courts have in recent years accepted joint custody where both parents request it and it serves the child, and have recognised foreign joint-custody judgments.

Who has custody if the parents are not married?

The mother. The father can obtain contact rights once paternity is established, and custody only by court decision where the child's interest requires it.

At what age can a child choose which parent to live with?

There is no fixed age in the statute. A child of sufficient maturity is heard and the views are given weight according to age and understanding, but the decision remains the court's, based on the child's interests.

Can custody be changed later?

Yes. Custody decisions can be revised whenever new facts require it, such as relocation, remarriage, neglect or persistent obstruction of contact. Since 2021 judgments expressly warn that custody may be changed if contact arrangements are not respected.

Can I move abroad with my child after divorce?

If you have sole custody you decide the child's residence, but a move that undermines the other parent's contact entitles that parent to ask the court to revise contact or custody. If custody is joint or the marriage continues, you need the other parent's consent or a court order.

What if my child is taken to Turkey without my consent?

If your country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention, apply through your Central Authority for the child's return. Turkey's Central Authority is the Ministry of Justice. Act quickly: after one year, return can be refused if the child has settled.

How is a contact order enforced in Turkey?

Through the Ministry of Justice's legal support and victim services directorates, with specialists and at handover centres, free of charge. A parent who does not comply can face disciplinary imprisonment and a change of custody.

Legal basis and sources

Turkish Civil Code No. 4721, Articles 166, 168–169, 182–184, 323–324, 336–349 — official consolidated text at mevzuat.gov.tr.
Act on Private International and Procedural Law No. 5718, Articles 14, 17 and 40.
Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, and Law No. 5717 implementing it.
Law No. 6284; Law No. 6458, Article 46.

This article provides general legal information on Turkish law as of October 2026. It is not legal advice. Custody outcomes depend on the individual child and family; joint custody after divorce rests on court practice that is not uniform.