The court can find it proved and still not announce it — and you carry that for five years.

A Turkish court that finds the case proved does not automatically send you to prison. Three separate instruments sit at the end of the trial, and they are not interchangeable.

Two of them turn on the length of the sentence the court pronounces. Under TCK 49/2, a sentence of one year or less is a short-term prison sentence — kısa süreli hapis cezası. That figure is the gateway to conversion under TCK 50. The gateway to suspension under TCK 51 and to deferral under CMK 231 is two years or less.

The three routes

• Conversion — TCK 50. A short-term prison sentence can be converted into a judicial fine, into repair of the damage, into attendance at a training institution for at least two years, into a ban on going to certain places or carrying out certain activities, into withdrawal of a licence or a professional ban, or into voluntary work of public benefit. Under TCK 50/5, the converted sanction — not the prison term — is the actual conviction.
• Suspension — TCK 51. A sentence of two years or less can be suspended. The conviction stands; it is the execution that does not happen unless you breach.
• Deferral of the announcement of the judgment — CMK 231. Hükmün açıklanmasının geri bırakılması, universally shortened to HAGB. The court builds a judgment and then does not announce it. Under CMK 231/5, apart from the provisions on confiscation, that judgment produces no legal consequence for the defendant.

None of the three is decided by the label on the charge. All three are decided by the number the court arrives at after applying every reduction available to it. That is why the work that determines whether you go to prison happens before the sentence figure is fixed, not after.

Under CMK 231/5, the court may defer the announcement of the judgment where the sentence imposed is two years or less of imprisonment, or a judicial fine. The provisions on mediation are expressly reserved.

The three conditions — CMK 231/6

• No previous conviction for an intentional offence. Note the wording. Unlike TCK 51, there is no three-month tolerance here: a prior conviction for an intentional offence closes the door regardless of how short the sentence was.
• The court must be satisfied you will not offend again, having regard to your personal characteristics and to your conduct and behaviour at the hearing. This is the discretionary limb, and it is the one that is actually argued.
• The damage must be fully repaired — by restitution, by restoration to the position before the offence, or by compensation — whether the loss is to the victim or to the public.

If you cannot repair the damage immediately, CMK 231/9 allows deferral to be granted on condition that you pay it off in monthly instalments across the supervision period. It is a route that is regularly not asked for.

What a deferred judgment cannot contain

Under CMK 231/7, the prison sentence inside a deferred judgment cannot itself be suspended, and where it is short-term it cannot be converted into an alternative sanction. The judgment sits intact, ready to be announced as it was written.

CMK 231/14 excludes the offences of torture and eziyet, and offences committed by public officials by reason of their office which amount to ill-treatment within Article 17 of the Constitution.

Under CMK 231/8, a defendant whose judgment is deferred is placed under a supervision period of five years. During that period no further deferral may be granted for an intentional offence.

Within the five years the court may impose supervised release measures — denetimli serbestlik — for a period it fixes, not exceeding one year:

• attendance at a training programme to acquire a trade or profession, where you have none;
• where you have one, working for a wage in a public body or under the supervision of another person practising the same trade or profession;
• a prohibition on going to certain places, a requirement to attend certain places, or another obligation the court sees fit to set.

The limitation period for the prosecution is suspended for the whole of the five years. Nothing is running down in the background.

Clean, and not clean

Under CMK 231/10, if you commit no intentional offence during the period and comply with the supervision measures, the deferred judgment is set aside and the case is dismissed — davanın düşmesi.

Under CMK 231/11, if you commit an intentional offence or breach the supervision obligations, the court announces the judgment. It is not bound to announce it untouched: assessing the position of a defendant who could not meet the obligations, it may order that up to half of the sentence not be executed, or, where the conditions exist, suspend the prison sentence or convert it into alternative sanctions, entering a new conviction instead. The judgment announced or newly entered can be challenged by itiraz, and the reviewing authority may assess it only within the limits of that paragraph.

Under CMK 231/13, deferral decisions are entered in a system reserved for them. Those entries may be used only where a prosecutor, judge or court requests them in connection with an investigation or prosecution, and only for the purpose set out in Article 231.

TCK 51/1 allows a prison sentence of two years or less to be suspended; the ceiling is three years for a person who was under eighteen or over sixty-five at the time of the offence. Two conditions: no previous conviction to more than three months of imprisonment for an intentional offence, and the court's satisfaction, from the remorse shown during the proceedings, that you will not offend again.

Under TCK 51/2 suspension may be made conditional on full repair of the damage. Where it is, execution continues in the prison until the condition is met; on it being met, the enforcement judge orders immediate release.

TCK 51/3 sets a supervision period of not less than one year and not more than three, which cannot be shorter than the sentence itself. Under TCK 51/6 the court may let that period run with no obligation and no supervisor at all. Under TCK 51/7, an intentional offence during the period, or persistent non-compliance after a warning from the enforcement judge, means the sentence is executed in whole or in part. Under TCK 51/8, a period passed properly means the sentence counts as executed.

Conversion under TCK 50

Where the sentence is short-term, the first option in TCK 50/1 carries most files: a judicial fine. Under TCK 52, a judicial fine is a number of days — no fewer than five, and unless the law provides otherwise no more than 730 — multiplied by a daily figure the court sets between 100 and 500 Turkish lira according to your economic and personal circumstances. The court may allow up to a year to pay, or order instalments over a period of up to two years in no fewer than four instalments. Miss one and the whole remainder falls due, and an unpaid judicial fine is converted into imprisonment.

Conversion is mandatory in two cases under TCK 50/3, and in both the person must have no previous prison sentence: a sentence of thirty days or less; and a sentence of one year or less for a person under eighteen or over sixty-five at the time of the offence.

Under TCK 50/6, if you do not begin to comply with a converted measure within thirty days of the prosecutor's notice after the judgment becomes final, or begin and then stop, the enforcement judge orders the short-term prison sentence executed in whole or in part — and that order is executed immediately.

Side by side

The record is where they diverge

Under Law no. 5352 art. 4, judicial records are kept of final convictions handed down by Turkish courts against citizens and foreigners alike. Where a prison sentence is suspended, the record carries the supervision period, the fact that the sentence was deemed executed, and any later order that it be served after all. Conversion under TCK 50 is likewise recorded. A deferred judgment under CMK 231 is not on that list; it sits in the separate system created by CMK 231/13. See criminal record.

One further difference: under TCK 53/4, the disqualifications in TCK 53/1 — public office, election rights, guardianship, holding office in a company, association or union, practising a licensed profession — are not applied where a short-term prison sentence has been suspended.

All three instruments are decided at the end. Almost none of the work that gets you there is.

The sentence figure

Whether the file lands at two years or at two years and one month is not a rounding question — it is the whole question. Everything that moves the figure moves the outcome: the classification of the act, whether an aggravating provision applies, whether the quantity or the role or the intent is what the file says it is, and every reduction available. That argument belongs in the hearing, not in an application after judgment.

Repairing the damage

CMK 231/6-c is a hard condition, not a factor to be weighed. Where there is quantified loss and it is not repaired, deferral is not available however good the rest of the case looks. Two things follow. Establish early what the claimed loss actually is. And if it cannot be paid at once, ask for the instalment route in CMK 231/9 rather than letting the condition simply fail.

Mediation is a separate exit

For offences within its scope, uzlaştırma does not require any of the above. Under CMK 254, where a prosecution has already been brought and the offence turns out to fall within the mediation scheme, the file is sent to the mediation office. If mediation succeeds and the defendant performs in a single payment, the court dismisses the case. Where performance is deferred, paid in instalments or continuing, the court makes a stay order and the limitation period does not run during it. Failure to perform means the trial resumes where it stopped. See criminal mediation.

Personal-use drug files have their own route

Under TCK 191/2, in an investigation for buying, accepting or possessing narcotics for personal use, or for using them, prosecution is deferred for five years, and the conditions in CMK 171 are not required. Under TCK 191/3, supervised release runs for at least one year, extendable by the prosecutor in six-month blocks by up to two further years, and the prosecutor orders you sent for testing at least twice a year. Comply, and under TCK 191/7 the decision at the end is that no prosecution will be brought. Breach, and the public case is opened — and under TCK 191/6 the deferral cannot be granted a second time.

TCK 191/8 matters where the charge started higher. Where a prosecution under TCK 188 or TCK 190 turns out at trial to fall exclusively within Article 191, the court gives a deferral of the announcement of the judgment within the framework of that article.

Everything above concerns the criminal file. For a foreign national there is a second file, and it does not follow the first.

Five years is longer than your permit

A supervision period of five years under CMK 231/8 will outlast most residence permits and several renewals. Under Law no. 6458 art. 32, a short-term residence permit requires, among other things, a criminal record certificate issued by the authorities of the country of your nationality or lawful residence, where one is asked for. The criminal court and the migration authority assess your position separately, and neither tells the other what it decided.

A deferred judgment is not immigration protection

Under Law no. 6458 art. 54/1-d, a deportation decision is taken about a foreigner assessed as constituting a threat to public order, public security or public health. That is an administrative assessment. It does not require a conviction, and CMK 231/5 — which says the deferred judgment produces no legal consequence — governs the criminal file, not the migration authority's assessment. Under art. 9/3, an entry ban runs for up to five years; where there is a serious threat to public order or public security the Directorate General may extend it by up to ten years more. See deportation and entry bans.

Interpreter, and what you are agreeing to

The condition in CMK 231/6-c and the instalment arrangement in CMK 231/9 are put to you in Turkish, at a hearing, often quickly. What is being put is whether you accept a quantified figure and undertake to pay it over five years. Ask for it to be interpreted in terms, and ask for the figure in writing. See interpreter rights.

The exit ban does not lift itself

Whether a prohibition on leaving the country imposed as a judicial control obligation falls away when the judgment is deferred depends on what the court ordered and on what the decision says. It is a separate decision. Ask for it expressly at the hearing rather than discovering the position at the airport. See travel bans.

The appeal route changed

Under CMK 231/12, a deferral decision is challenged by istinaf — appeal to the bölge adliye mahkemesi — subject to CMK 272/3. For decisions given before 1 June 2024, CMK Geçici Madde 6 keeps the older itiraz route. CMK 272/3 excludes from istinaf, among others, convictions to a judicial fine of up to and including 15,000 Turkish lira as the final figure, other than fines converted from imprisonment. On appeal the decision is examined for procedural and substantive unlawfulness.

What this page cannot tell you

It cannot tell you whether a deferred judgment will be visible to an authority in your own country, or how that authority will treat it if it is. Turkish law controls what is recorded in Türkiye and who may ask for it. What a foreign visa officer, employer or licensing body sees depends on their rules, on any information-sharing arrangement, and sometimes on a question you are asked directly and must answer honestly. Anyone who tells you a deferred judgment is invisible everywhere is guessing.