ANNULMENT OF MARRIAGE CASE

Annulment of marriage is the termination and invalidation of a marriage by court order. Although annulment of marriage falls under Family Law, it is entirely different from a divorce case. Divorce proceedings involve the termination of a legally valid marriage by court order, provided the conditions for a marriage have been met or the parties have reached a mutual agreement. In an annulment case, unlike a divorce case, the marriage contract is flawed from the outset, and therefore the marriage is invalid from the beginning.

Conditions for the Dissolution of Marriage

According to the Civil Code, marriage primarily ends in the following situations:

• Filing for divorce,
• The death of one of the spouses,
• A declaration of absence has been issued for a spouse who disappeared under circumstances that pose a risk to their life, or from whom no news has been received for a long time
• Annulment of marriage due to invalidity.

Reasons for Annulment in Marriage

The conditions required for an annulment of marriage case, in other words the conditions for an invalid marriage, are as follows:

• One of the spouses being married at the time of the marriage
• One of the spouses being permanently incapacitated at the time of marriage,
• One of the spouses has a mental illness severe enough to prevent marriage
• The existence of a degree of kinship between the spouses that would prevent marriage.

Consequences of Annulment of Marriage

In annulment cases, the outcomes will be considered in terms of the partners' circumstances and the factor of children. In this case, the possible outcome of an annulment case is as follows:

• Given that the spouse acted in good faith when marrying, they retain their personal status acquired through that marriage. However, matters such as the dissolution of the marital property regime, compensation, alimony, and surname changes are subject to the legal provisions governing divorce.
• In cases of annulment of marriage, even if the parents are deemed to have acted in bad faith, the child born within the marriage is considered to have been born jointly and within the marriage after the court decides on the annulment. All decisions concerning the jointly born child are governed by the principles of divorce as defined in the Turkish Civil Code.

Time Limit for Filing a Lawsuit for Annulment of Marriage

According to Article 52 of the Turkish Civil Code, there are statute of limitations periods of 6 months and 5 years for filing a lawsuit to annul a marriage based on grounds of temporary lack of capacity to discern, error, deception, or coercion. In other words, the right to file a lawsuit to annul a marriage expires 6 months from the moment the ground for annulment is learned or the effect of the coercion ceases, and at the latest 5 years after the marriage.

How to file for annulment of marriage? What are the scopes of annulment lawsuits? How long do annulment lawsuits take? For more information on issues such as lawsuit costs in annulment cases, and for other questions, you can consult divorce lawyerswith our experienced at our firm