Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
European Review of Private Law, cilt.32, sa.5, ss.897-924, 2024 (ESCI)
Founded on 29 October 1923, the Turkish Republic rejected Ottoman/Islamic law and adopted Western European law in toto, one of the most radical legal revolutions in history. The main law adopted was the Swiss Civil Code (ZGB). As a natural consequence of the radicalism of the legal reception, some problems have arisen especially in the adoption of the Swiss family law by Turkish society. The main problem was that a considerable proportion of the population did not accept civil marriage and continued to practice religious partnerships. This led to the problem that millions of children from religious partnerships were not legally recognized. This article, written on the occasion of the Republic of Türkiye's 100th anniversary, uses statistical data to analyse the current state of reception and how this fundamental problem has been overcome. Four main factors were important in overcoming this problem: amnesty laws, lowering the marriage age, facilitation of the formal requirements for marriage and the activities of jurists. At the end of 2017, Turkish law authorized muftis to perform civil marriages. This novelty was heavily criticized in society, especially by modernists. Official statistics reveal that the public preference for mufti marriages is less than 2% and that this option does not contribute to reducing the number of purely religious partnerships.