Divorce Petition Due to Ill-Treatment

TO THE DUTY FAMILY COURT
OF ISTANBUL

PLAINTIFF: [Name and Surname] – (Turkish Republic Identity Number: …) – [Address]

ATTORNEY: Lawyer [Name and Surname] – [Address] – Tel.

DEFENDANT: [Name and Surname] – [Address]

SUBJECT: Divorce, alimony, and child custody claims due to the fundamental breakdown of the marriage.

EXPLANATIONS:

1. Our client married the defendant spouse on [Date]. They have two children from this marriage, [Child 1 Name] and [Child 2 Name]. One child is [Age] and the other is [Age] years old, and both are minors.
2. Disagreements arose between our client and the defendant spouse from the early days of their marriage and have increased over time. These disagreements stem from the defendant spouse's commission of various crimes and regular legal problems. The defendant is currently serving a prison sentence of [Date] years for various crimes. During the marriage, the defendant insulted our client, demanded that she engage in immoral behavior, and this fundamentally undermined the marital union. Our client has been living separately for [Duration] years.
3. According to Articles 162, 163, and 166 of the Turkish Civil Code, the defendant spouse's negative behavior and offenses against our client have disrupted the marital union and necessitated the filing of a divorce lawsuit.

CUSTODY REQUEST:

4. After the defendant went to prison, our client looked after the children, but the defendant requested that the children be placed in a children's home, and upon this request, the children were taken from our client and placed in a children's home. The children were returned to their father's family, but the children experienced various problems there. The children wished to stay with our client again. Our client leads a stable life and is capable of raising her children well. Our client's father is also a civil servant in [District]. For these reasons, we request that the custody of the children be given to our client and that a monthly child support payment of [TL] be ordered for each child.

EVIDENCE:

1. Family registration certificate
2. Witness statements and other legal evidence

WITNESSES:

1. [Name and Surname] – (Turkish Republic Identity Number: …) – [Address]
2. [Name and Surname] – (Turkish Republic Identity Number: …) – [Address]

LEGAL GROUNDS: Turkish Civil Code Articles 162, 163, 166 and related legislation.

CONCLUSION AND REQUEST: For the reasons explained above, we respectfully request and demand that the parties be divorced, that the joint children remain with our client throughout the proceedings, that custody be granted to our client in the event of divorce, that monthly alimony of [TL] be paid for each child, that alimony continue as child support after the divorce, and that the court costs and attorney fees be borne by the defendant.

…/…/…

Plaintiff's
Attorney [Name and Surname]
Signature

2nd Civil Chamber, Case No. 2015/13850, Decision No. 2016/5358

Following the trial of the case between the parties, the local court issued the judgment, dated and numbered as indicated above. The plaintiff woman appealed this judgment, and after reviewing the documents and considering the matter, the following was concluded:
The plaintiff woman filed for divorce based on the grounds of "extremely bad treatment" and "humiliating conduct" as defined in Article 162 of the Turkish Civil Code, but the case was dismissed.
The investigation and evidence gathered revealed that the defendant husband subjected his wife to continuous and severe physical violence. He was convicted of this act of physical violence. These actions constitute extremely bad treatment and humiliating conduct. Therefore, the grounds for divorce under Article 162 of the Turkish Civil Code have been established. Essentially, the court also accepted these actions as proven, but dismissed the plaintiff woman's case, stating that the actions did not reach the intensity required by Article 162 of the Code, and therefore the specific grounds for divorce were not met. Continuous and severe physical violence constitutes "extremely bad treatment" for the spouse subjected to it . Therefore, the court's grounds for dismissal are not legally sound. Considering that the grounds for divorce stipulated in Article 162 of the law exist, the plaintiff woman's case should have been accepted, and its rejection was deemed incorrect.

2nd Civil Chamber, Case No. 2013/25194 E., Decision No. 2014/8463 K.

a) Plaintiff-defendant (woman); The spouse filed for divorce, relying on both the "extremely bad treatment" ground in Article 162 of the Turkish Civil Code and the "fundamental breakdown of the marital union" ground in Article 166/1 of the same Code. The specific grounds for divorce based on fault (Articles 161, 162, and 163 of the Turkish Civil Code) are also general grounds for divorce. In such a situation, the spouse may request a divorce based on either the specific ground or the general ground, or they may request a divorce based on a combination of these. Alternatively, as in this case, they may rely on both grounds simultaneously . In this latter case, procedurally, it is not the case that there are separate lawsuits based on the number of grounds relied upon, but rather that multiple legal grounds are relied upon in a single lawsuit. As a result, separate judgments are not issued for each ground. If the specific ground for divorce has been established, the divorce decree is issued based on that specific ground . Furthermore, there is no longer a need to issue a separate judgment regarding the general ground. The collected evidence is based on the specific ground for divorce ... If the grounds for divorce are not sufficient to establish that the specific grounds exist, this fact should be stated in the reasoning, and the court should assess whether there is sufficient grounds for a general divorce decree. If so, a divorce decree should be issued based on these grounds. In this second case, it is not necessary to issue a separate ruling regarding the request for divorce based on a specific ground. It is sufficient to state in the reasoning that this specific ground does not exist according to its legal requirements.