However, these laws are not necessarily abolished by a replacement law which clearly ends their power. In other words, somebody may argue that such a law is still in use because it has clearly not been abolished. A significant majority of scholars would say that a law which has not been in use in daily life for a long time should be deemed as abolished.As you can see, abolishing a law by arguing that it is not in use any more may not be the best way to abolish a law.
For instance, a law on wearing a hat still exists. To be clearer, it is a law which makes it compulsory for men to wear hats. This was intended to encourage people to get used to new clothing following the revolution of the new young republic. It is highly unlikely but still not impossible that a police officer, who apparently wears a cap, may stop me and take me to court.
There is a law that business people may be very interested to know about when making contracts in any language other than Turkish: the Compulsory Use of Turkish Language in Economic Enterprises Law no. 805. This law was published in the Official Gazette no. 353 dated April 26, 1926 and was put into force. Some of the provisions of the law are as follows:
Article 1: Any and all companies and enterprises of foreign nationality must keep their books, records and transactions within Turkey in the Turkish language.
Article 2: This obligation for foreign companies and enterprises is limited to their correspondence, transactions and contacts with Turkish enterprises and persons of Turkish nationality and to the documents and books that they must present to any government official and institute.
Article 3: Companies and enterprises depicted in Article 2 are permitted to use another language than Turkish but Turkish text must be added underneath. Only the Turkish text that is added under the text written in another language shall prevail.
Article 4: Documents and records that were prepared contrary to Articles 1 and 2 above after this law came into effect shall not be considered valid.
Article 6: Reports to be issued by ministries and government officials about those who violate this law shall be valid until otherwise proven.
The sanction for breaking this law is that the court may impose a fine. In the former text the sanction for repeating the same “violation” was that company activity could be stopped from between one week to one year. This second sanction has now been lifted by law no. 5728 enacted on 23/01/2008 and which came into force on Feb. 8, 2008 published in the Official Gazette no. 26781.
This law is still in use and is a big topic of discussion when the amount of money in dispute is high. I know a couple of pending cases which are bound up with this law. What is the solution then? It may be a good idea to use Turkish when doing business.
NOTE: Berk Çektir is a licensed attorney at law and available to answer questions on the legal aspects of living in Turkey. Send enquiries to b.cektir@todayszaman.com The names of the readers are disclosed only upon written approval of the sender.DISCLAIMER: The information provided here is intended to give basic legal information. You should get legal assistance from a licensed attorney at law while conducting legal transactions and not just rely on the information in this corner.
