The Turkish Revolution of 1926: The Transition Process of Family Law from Ottoman Legal Heritage to Turkish Civil Law

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Author	Irfan Cicekli

TheTurkishRevolutionof1926:

TheTransitionProcessofFamilyLawfrom

OttomanLegalHeritagetoTurkishCivil

Law



IrfanCicekli*



Thelegalrevolutionof1926inTurkey,markedby

thepromulgationofthenewCivilCode,hasbeen

seenasadifferentandevenspecialinstanceby

somescholars.Themainreasonlyingbehindthat

assumptionisthefactthatitwasavoluntary

adaptationasopposedtothemajorityofinstances

wherelegaldiffusionoccurredthrough

colonisation.Itwasalsoseenasrevolutionary

sinceitbroughtmarginalchangesintheareaof

familylawanditwillbediscussedtowhatextent

thisrevolutionhasbeencharacterisedas

completelyliberatingandacertaincut‐offfromthe

Ottomanlegalhistory.Thispaperwillcritically

examinethevalidityofsuchclaims,byanalysing

thechangesthathaveoccurredsincetheOttoman

perioduntilveryrecently.Themethodsusedinan

attempttobringTurkeyinlinewithother

modernisedstates,alongwiththeimplicationsto

society,willbescrutinised.







184SLJ5(1)



Introduction



Inahighlyfamousspeech,MustafaKemalAtaturkstated

thatthecorrectpathforthenewlyformedTurkishRepublic

istheroadofcivilisation.Itisacommonperceptionamong

manyTurksthattheKemalistrevolutionof1926was,infact,

theultimatetoolforsuchacivilisationandledtoacomplete

andclearbreakfromtheIslamicOttomanpast.However,

whenthesocio‐legalanalogyisanalysed,itisseenthatthe

Turkishlegaltransplantationisfarfromadecisiveeasy‐

goingprocessasithasbeenadvertised.Thispaperwill

analysetheTurkishexperienceinordertotestthevalidityof

theperceptionthattheTurkishlegalrevolutionwasa

completecut‐offfromthepastIslamicandculturalnorms.

Thefirstchapterwilllookatthetheoreticalbackground

behindtheTurkishlegaltransplantationandexplainwhy

Turkeyhasbeenseenasaspecialinstanceandwhythefocus

intheareaoffamilylaw.Thesecondchapterwillanalysethe

modernisationandsecularisationeffortsintheOttoman

periodtodemonstratethatthe1926revolutionwasnotthe

firstmodernisationeffortinTurkishhistory.Thethird

chapterwilllookatthepowerdynamicsatworkinthe

Code’stransplantationandtheextenttowhichiteliminated

thenormsandrulesthatweredeemedoutdatedbythe

foundersoftheRepublic.Thefourthchapterwillanalysethe

implicationsoftherevolutionfromtheearlydaysofthe

Republicuntiltheendofthe20thcenturytoseethereaction

ofthenormativeorderingsembeddedinthesocietytowards

change,andwhethertherewasanyresistancetoofficiallaw.

ThefifthchapterlooksatthenewCivilCodeof2002and

analyseswhethertheeffectsofOttoman‐Islamiclegal

heritagecanstillbefounddespitenumerousreformsinareas

suchasgenderequalityandmarriage.Throughoutthecourse

ofthediscussion,itwillbeshownthatthelinesbetweenthe

pastandpresent,oldandnew,andtherealitiesofchange

TheTurkishRevolutionof1926185



beforeandaftertherevolutionareneitherasclearnoras

definiteasthehegemonicnarrativesmaysuggest.1



1.TheoriesandBackground



Alegaladaptationcantakeplaceinanumberofdifferent

ways.Itcanbeimposed,planned,unplanned,adeliberate

effort,oraresultofconvergenceordivergence.2Turkey’s

caseofadoptingtheSwissCivilCodewassurelynotacaseof

anunplannedoranenforcedone.AsstatedbytheMinister

ofJustice,MahmudEsatBozkurt,theintentionwasnota

simplereformbutratherarevolutionoflaw.3Legalreform

wasthecentralmechanismoftheKemalistRevolutionand

codificationwasthemainmethodoflegalreform.4By1926,

anentirelysecularlegalsystemwasputinplaceanditis

arguedthatthelawwasaimedatchangingbehaviourinthe

hopethatattitudeswouldfollow.5Theaimwastobuilda

newnationalidentityandthechosenmodewaslegal

transplantation.



*IrfanCicekliiscurrentlyanLPDstudentattheUniversityof

Law.HeholdsanLLBfromtheUniversityofLondonSOAS.

1SevalYildirim,‘AftermathofARevolution:ACaseStudyof

TurkishFamilyLaw’(2005)17PaceInternationalLawReview348.

2DavidNelkenandJohannesFeest,AdaptingLegalCultures(1st

edn,HartPublishing2001)22.

3BozkurtME,TurkMedeniKanunuNasilHazirlandi?[1944]in

BozkurtG(tr),‘TheReceptionofWesternEuropeanLawin

Turkey(FromtheTanzimattotheTurkishRepublic,1839‐1939’

(1998)7DerIslam283,294.

4Yildirim(n1)356.

5EliseBoulding,‘Foreword’inNerminAbadan‐Unat(ed),

WomenintheDevelopingWorld:EvidencefromTurkey

(UniversityofDenver1986).

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The Turkish Revolution of 1926: The Transition Process of Family Law from Ottoman Legal Heritage to Turkish Civil Law

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