Under Article 36 of the Highway Traffic Law, Law No. 2918, as amended by Law No. 7574 from 27 February 2026, driving a motor vehicle with no licence is fined 40,000 Turkish Lira, and driving while your licence is suspended or cancelled 200,000 Turkish Lira. The keeper who allowed it pays 40,000 Turkish Lira. Article 36 does not itself withdraw the vehicle. Foreigners may drive on a foreign licence for six months from entry. After an accident, the compulsory insurer pays the victim and can claim the money back from the insured.
Since 27 February 2026, driving without a licence in Türkiye has become considerably more expensive. Law No. 7574, which amended the Highway Traffic Law, rewrote the penalty paragraph of Article 36 and replaced the old, annually revalued amounts with new fixed figures: 40,000 Turkish Lira for driving with no licence and 200,000 Turkish Lira for driving while a licence is suspended or cancelled. For foreigners the question usually arises in less obvious ways than a teenager taking the family car: a resident who has kept driving on a home country licence long after the six month limit, a tourist who rents a 125 cc scooter in Bodrum with only a car licence, or a newcomer who lends a car to a friend whose licence turns out to be invalid. This article explains the current rules, the fines, what happens to the vehicle, how electric scooters are treated, and why the real financial risk often appears only after an accident, when the insurer asks for its money back.
The Highway Traffic Law, Law No. 2918, makes a driving licence, sürücü belgesi, a precondition for driving any motor vehicle on a public road. The first paragraph of Article 36 prohibits two things: driving a motor vehicle on the highway by a person who does not hold a licence, and allowing such a person to drive. The colloquial Turkish expression for the offence is ehliyetsiz araç kullanma, driving without a licence, and the same rule covers cars, motorcycles, mopeds and any other vehicle that the law treats as motorised.
The second paragraph of Article 36 lists the people who may drive: holders of Turkish licences in the classes set out in the Highway Traffic Regulation, persons holding a licence valid under multilateral agreements, and persons holding a valid international driving permit. For a foreigner this means that a licence issued abroad is not automatically a licence for Turkish purposes; it is recognised only within the limits of the treaties and of the Regulation, which is where the six month rule described in section 4 comes from.
Law No. 7574 was adopted on 12 February 2026 and published in the Official Gazette No. 33181 on 27 February 2026. Article 9 of that law replaced the third paragraph of Article 36 and, with almost all other provisions of the amending law, entered into force on the date of publication. Two features matter in practice. First, the fines are now stated directly in the statute at a much higher level than before. Second, the law draws a clear distinction between a person who never had a licence and a person who had one but was prohibited from using it, with the second category punished five times more heavily.
The penalties under Article 36 are administrative fines, idari para cezası, imposed on the spot by the traffic police or the gendarmerie. They are not criminal sentences and do not create a criminal record. The table below sets out the amounts as they currently read in the consolidated text of Law No. 2918.
| Situation | Current Rule (Law No. 2918) |
|---|---|
| Driving a motor vehicle without holding any licence | 40,000 Turkish Lira (Article 36(3)(a)) |
| Driving while the licence is temporarily withdrawn by a court, a prosecutor or the traffic authorities | 200,000 Turkish Lira (Article 36(3)(b)) |
| Driving while the licence is cancelled | 200,000 Turkish Lira (Article 36(3)(c)) |
| Keeper who allowed any of the above | 40,000 Turkish Lira, issued on the registration plate (Article 36(3), last sentence) |
| Driving a vehicle outside the classes of your licence | Separate, lower fine under Article 39(2), also imposed on the owner; amount revalued every January |
| Driving on a foreign licence contrary to the time limits and conditions of the Regulation | Separate fine under Article 39, imposed each time; amount revalued every January |
| Payment within one month of service | 25% reduction; payment does not waive the right to appeal |
| Appeal | 15 days from service to the criminal judgeship of peace |
The basic fine of 40,000 Turkish Lira applies to anyone who drives a motor vehicle without holding a licence that Turkish law recognises. This includes a person who has never obtained a licence, a person whose licence is not valid for Turkish purposes, and, depending on how the officers classify the facts, a person who holds a licence only for a different category of vehicle. The fine does not increase for repeat breaches within a year, unlike some other rules amended by Law No. 7574, but each new stop produces a new fine.
A driver whose licence has been taken away, for example after a drink driving report, after reaching 100 penalty points or as a precautionary measure ordered by a prosecutor, is fined 200,000 Turkish Lira if caught driving during the withdrawal period. The same amount applies where the licence has been cancelled. Article 118 of Law No. 2918 confirms that a driver caught behind the wheel during a withdrawal period is punished under the third paragraph of Article 36. The grounds on which a licence can be withdrawn are discussed in our article on why a driver licence can be confiscated in Türkiye.
Under Additional Article 3 of Law No. 2918, the fixed amounts in the law are increased at the start of each calendar year by the revaluation rate announced under the Tax Procedure Law. The figures above therefore apply to breaches committed in 2026; from 1 January 2027 they will be updated, and anyone reading this later should check the current amount.
Many people searching for this topic expect that the car or motorcycle will be impounded. Article 36, as rewritten in 2026, does not provide for trafikten men, the withdrawal of the vehicle from traffic for a fixed number of days, as a sanction for driving without a licence. This distinguishes it from other provisions of the same law: Law No. 7574 attached a 60 day withdrawal of both licence and vehicle to stunt riding on motorcycles under Article 66 and to certain dangerous driving offences under Article 46, but not to Article 36.
That does not mean you can drive away. Once the officers establish that the driver has no valid licence, the driver is stopped from continuing, because Article 36 prohibits the driving itself. Article 125 of the Highway Traffic Regulation sets out how vehicles and drivers removed from traffic are dealt with: a vehicle may not be left where it cannot be protected, it is delivered to an authorised car park against a report, and the costs of towing and storage are borne by the owner, keeper or driver. In practice the vehicle is usually handed to a licensed person who comes to the scene, and only if nobody is available is it towed. Separate rules apply where the vehicle itself has a problem, for example no compulsory insurance or no valid inspection, which can lead to withdrawal of the vehicle on their own grounds.
For foreigners the most common way of ending up without a valid licence is not a lack of training but the expiry of the period during which a foreign licence may be used.
Article 88 of the Highway Traffic Regulation, as amended on 5 June 2020, allows foreigners to drive in Türkiye on a licence issued abroad for at most six months from the date of entry into the country. After six months, the foreign licence must be exchanged for a Turkish one before the holder may continue to drive. Turkish citizens with a foreign licence have a longer period of two years. The exchange procedure, the list of countries whose licences are exchanged without an examination and the current fees are explained in our guide to foreign driver licence conversion in Türkiye.
The Regulation counts the period from the date of entry. It does not say in terms how repeated exits and entries are treated, and practice is not uniform, so a resident who lives in Türkiye on a residence permit should not rely on a recent trip abroad to restart the clock. If you are settled here and drive regularly, the safe course is to exchange the licence.
Law No. 2918 contains a specific provision for this situation. The last paragraph of Article 39 provides that a person who drives on a licence obtained abroad contrary to the period and conditions set out in the Regulation is fined each time. That fine is far lower than the 40,000 Turkish Lira under Article 36 and is revalued annually. Officers do not always apply the correct provision, and we have seen reports issued under Article 36 against foreign residents whose home licence was perfectly genuine but simply out of time. If that happens, the classification of the breach is a legitimate ground of appeal, as explained in section 10.
An international driving permit is recognised by Article 36(2) as long as it is valid, but it is a translation of your national licence, not a separate right to drive. It does not extend the six month period for residents, and under the Population and Citizenship Affairs instructions on licence procedures, international permits are not themselves exchanged for Turkish licences. Keep the national licence with the permit at all times.
Holiday areas produce a steady flow of cases involving tourists and new residents on rented scooters and motorcycles. The licence class rules are therefore worth knowing in detail.
Article 75 of the Highway Traffic Regulation sets the classes. The M class covers mopeds, motorlu bisiklet, which Law No. 2918 defines as vehicles with a maximum speed of 45 km/h and, for combustion engines, a cylinder capacity of up to 50 cc. A1 covers motorcycles up to 125 cc and 11 kW, A2 motorcycles up to 35 kW, and A all motorcycles. Under Article 85 of the Regulation, a B class car licence also authorises the M class, so a car licence holder may ride a 50 cc moped, but not a 125 cc motorcycle.
Since an amendment published on 10 February 2024, a B licence holder may ride motorcycles of the A1 category inside Türkiye, except for commercial use, but only after holding a valid B licence for at least two years, meeting the health conditions for two wheeled vehicles, having had no licence withdrawal in the previous five years, and completing the practical training and examination for an A1 certificate, which is then recorded in the licence system. Simply holding a car licence for two years is not enough, and this route is only available through the Turkish system. A foreign car licence, even one within its six month period, does not give A1 rights.
Article 39(2) of Law No. 2918 prohibits driving vehicles outside the classes covered by your licence and imposes a fine on both the driver and the owner who let the vehicle be used. For insurance purposes, however, the difference between holding no licence and holding the wrong licence largely disappears: both the compulsory insurance and comprehensive cover conditions speak of the licence "required under the relevant legislation", as discussed in section 8.
Law No. 2918 defines an electric scooter, elektrikli skuter, as a standing vehicle with a maximum speed of 25 km/h. No driving licence is required, but Article 37 sets a minimum age of 15 for riders of electric scooters and electric bicycles and requires them to be physically and mentally fit. The Electric Scooter Regulation, published in the Official Gazette No. 31454 on 14 April 2021, adds the following rules in Article 5:
Article 5(3) of the Regulation also requires riders to comply with Law No. 2918 in general, so speed, alcohol and red light rules apply. Since 27 February 2026, Article 46 of Law No. 2918 expressly prohibits driving on pedestrian ways with a 5,000 Turkish Lira fine, and it reserves cycle paths and lanes for bicycles and electric scooters. Local transport authorities in some cities set lower speed limits for shared scooters, so check the local rules. One more change is scheduled: from 1 January 2027, Article 103 will refer to electric scooters instead of mopeds, which means that moped riders will no longer be left to the general rules of liability but will fall under the special liability rules for motor vehicles.
Article 36 prohibits not only driving without a licence but also allowing it. The person fined is the işleten, the keeper, which in most cases means the registered owner, and the fine of 40,000 Turkish Lira is issued on the registration plate. Typical situations involve a parent who lets a 17 year old practise on a quiet road, an employer who hands a company van to a new worker without checking the licence, and a foreign resident who lends a car to a visiting friend whose licence was issued in a country whose permits are not recognised.
The keeper's exposure is not limited to the fine. Under Article 85 of Law No. 2918, the keeper is liable for death, injury and damage caused by the operation of the vehicle and answers for the fault of the driver as for his or her own fault. If the unlicensed driver causes an accident, the injured party can claim from the keeper and the compulsory insurer, and the insurer can then turn back to the keeper, as explained below. Rental companies check licences for exactly this reason; for what they may lawfully ask of a foreign customer, see our article on renting a car in Türkiye as a foreigner.
The fine is often the smallest part of the cost. Where an unlicensed driver causes an accident, the two main insurance policies react differently, but neither protects the person who drove or allowed the driving.
Every keeper must hold compulsory motor liability insurance, zorunlu trafik sigortası, under Article 91 of Law No. 2918. Article 95 provides that grounds which would allow the insurer to refuse or reduce payment cannot be raised against the injured party, so the victim is paid. The insurer may then recover what it paid from the insured to the extent that the contract would have allowed it to refuse payment. This is the right of recourse, rücu. Clause B.4(b) of the General Conditions for Compulsory Motor Liability Insurance lists, as a ground of recourse, an event caused by the vehicle being driven by a person who does not hold the licence required by the relevant legislation, whose certificate has expired, or whose licence has been temporarily or permanently withdrawn. The same clause also states that the insurer may not delay paying the victim because of recourse grounds. Claims for bodily injury can reach very large amounts, and the recourse claim is a civil debt that can be enforced against the keeper's assets in Türkiye.
Comprehensive vehicle insurance, kasko, covers damage to the insured vehicle itself. Clause A.5.4 of the General Conditions for Land Vehicle Comprehensive Insurance excludes damage occurring while the vehicle is used by a person who does not hold the licence required under the relevant legislation. In other words, the owner of a car damaged while an unlicensed friend was driving should expect the claim to be refused. Similar principles apply to alcohol, which is discussed in our article on insurance liability in alcohol related accidents.
A tourist who leaves the country may believe that a recourse claim will never follow. In reality, insurers pursue recourse through the Turkish courts, judgments are enforceable against assets in Türkiye, and a resident with property, a bank account or a salary here is fully exposed. Leaving Türkiye does not extinguish the debt, and a later return, a property sale or a bank account here can bring it back into play.
Driving without a licence is not in itself a criminal offence in Türkiye. The position changes if someone is hurt or killed. Negligent injury is punished under Article 89 of the Turkish Penal Code, Law No. 5237, with four months to two years of imprisonment or a judicial fine, increased where the injury is serious, and negligent killing under Article 85 with two to six years. Where the driver foresaw the result but did not want it, Article 22(3) treats this as bilinçli taksir, conscious negligence, and increases the penalty by one third to one half.
The lack of a licence does not by itself decide who caused the accident; fault is assessed from the facts, usually through the accident report and an expert opinion. It can, however, weigh in the assessment of the driver's care, and it removes much of the sympathy a court might otherwise have. Negligent injury under Article 89(1) requires a complaint and is subject to conciliation under Article 253 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, Law No. 5271, which can lead to an agreed settlement with the victim. Our article on accident report forms and how to challenge them explains the documents that drive this assessment.
A fine under Article 36 must be paid within one month of service. Payment within that period attracts a 25% reduction under Article 17(6) of the Law on Misdemeanours, Law No. 5326, and paying does not waive the right to appeal. The appeal is made to the sulh ceza hakimliği, the criminal judgeship of peace, within 15 days of service under Article 27 of the same law. Realistic grounds include a wrong legal classification (Article 36 applied where Article 39 governs), a valid foreign licence wrongly treated as invalid, errors in the identity of the driver, or a fine issued to the keeper where the keeper did not in fact allow the use. The procedure is described in our guide to appealing a traffic fine in Türkiye.
Since 27 February 2026, Article 115 of Law No. 2918 also provides that traffic fines imposed on a foreign national and not collected before departure are collected when he or she next enters Türkiye, and that entry is refused if they cannot be collected. A traffic fine is not a ground for removal under Article 54 of the Law on Foreigners and International Protection, Law No. 6458, but an accident leading to a criminal case, or repeated serious breaches, can affect how the authorities view a residence or citizenship file. If a criminal investigation has started, early advice from our criminal law team is advisable before you make a statement.
It is 40,000 Turkish Lira under Article 36(3)(a) of Law No. 2918 as amended by Law No. 7574, payable with a 25% reduction within one month.
The fine is 200,000 Turkish Lira, the same as for driving with a cancelled licence.
Article 36 does not provide for a fixed withdrawal of the vehicle, but you will not be allowed to continue driving, and if no licensed driver can take the vehicle it may be towed to a car park at your cost.
Yes. The keeper who allowed an unlicensed person to drive is fined 40,000 Turkish Lira on the registration plate.
Foreigners may drive for at most six months from entry under Article 88 of the Highway Traffic Regulation; after that the licence must be exchanged.
The specific provision is Article 39 of Law No. 2918, which carries a much lower fine, although officers sometimes apply Article 36 and that classification can be challenged on appeal.
Not with a foreign car licence; a Turkish B licence covers 125 cc motorcycles only after two years and completion of the A1 training and examination added in 2024.
Yes, under Article 85 of the Highway Traffic Regulation a B licence also covers the M class for mopeds.
No, but you must be at least 15 and follow the Electric Scooter Regulation, including the ban on pavements, passengers and fast roads.
The compulsory insurer pays the victims but can claim the amount back from the insured, and comprehensive cover excludes damage to your own vehicle.
No, it is an administrative offence, but an accident causing injury or death is prosecuted under Articles 89 or 85 of the Turkish Penal Code.
Yes, within 15 days of service to the criminal judgeship of peace, and paying with the discount does not prevent the appeal.
Since 27 February 2026, unpaid traffic fines of a foreign national are collected on the next entry, and entry is refused if they are not paid.
A traffic fine is not a criminal conviction or a ground for removal by itself, but unpaid fines and accident cases can complicate later applications.
Driving or riding without a valid licence in Türkiye is now punished with a fine of 40,000 Turkish Lira, rising to 200,000 Turkish Lira where the licence was suspended or cancelled, and the keeper who allowed the use pays a further 40,000 Turkish Lira. Article 36 does not itself impound the vehicle, but the driver is stopped on the spot. For foreigners the usual traps are the six month limit on foreign licences, the difference between a car licence and the motorcycle classes, and the belief that insurance will cover an accident. It will not: the compulsory insurer pays the victim and then pursues the insured, and comprehensive cover excludes the damage altogether.
If you have received a fine under Article 36, been involved in an accident without a valid licence, or face a recourse claim from an insurer, the classification of the breach and the insurance position should be reviewed promptly, because the appeal period is only 15 days. To discuss your file in English, contact our legal team.
