Under Article 105 of the Turkish Penal Code, Law No. 5237, harassing a person with sexual intent without physical contact is punished, on the victim's complaint, with three months to two years' imprisonment or a judicial fine, or six months to three years if the victim is a child. The penalty rises by one half where the act exploits office, a family or service relationship, the same workplace, electronic messages or exposure. The complaint deadline is six months (Article 73). Law No. 7571 of December 2025 did not change Article 105.
A manager who sends sexual messages late at night, a stranger who shouts remarks from a car, an anonymous account that keeps posting sexual comments under a woman's photographs: in Türkiye each of these can amount to the crime of sexual harassment, cinsel taciz, the Turkish name of the offence, under Article 105 of the Turkish Penal Code, Law No. 5237. Foreign residents, students and workers who experience this often receive conflicting advice about whether it is "really" a crime, where to report it and how long they have. The text of Article 105 has remained the same since it was amended by Law No. 6545 in June 2014; the eleventh judicial package, Law No. 7571 of 24 December 2025, changed a number of other provisions of the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure but left Article 105 untouched. What has changed is the way these cases are proved: today most files are built on screenshots, message logs and camera footage rather than on witness statements alone. This article explains what the offence covers, the penalties and aggravated forms, the six month complaint deadline, harassment at work and the employee's right to resign with severance, online harassment, protective orders and the evidence that usually decides the case.
Article 105(1) punishes any person who harasses another person with sexual intent. The law does not list the ways in which the offence can be committed, so spoken remarks, gestures, letters, telephone calls, text messages, emails and social media messages can all qualify. The offence is complete once the conduct reaches the victim; there is no need to prove a lasting effect on the victim beyond the disturbance the act itself causes.
The decisive element is the sexual purpose of the conduct. Behaviour that is rude, aggressive or humiliating but has no sexual character is not harassment under Article 105, although it may be another offence, such as threat under Article 106 or insult under Article 125. Whether the intent was sexual is judged from the words used, the gestures, the relationship between the people involved and the circumstances. A suspect's later explanation that a remark was "only a joke" does not decide the matter if an ordinary person would understand it as sexual in context.
The conduct must be directed at an identifiable person. A remark addressed to a group can still be harassment if it is plainly aimed at one member of it. Sexual content shown to the public at large, with no particular target, is assessed under other provisions of the Penal Code rather than Article 105.
Harassment is the offence of sexual conduct without bodily contact. Once there is contact with the body through sexual conduct, however brief, the act is sexual assault under Article 102, which carries far heavier penalties. Where the victim is a child, physical contact may instead fall under Article 103 on the sexual abuse of children. The line between Article 105 and Article 102 is therefore the first question a prosecutor and a defence lawyer will examine.
Victims and suspects often confuse three offences that can arise from similar facts. The table below sets out the current rules as they appear in the Penal Code.
| Offence | Current Rule |
|---|---|
| Sexual harassment (Article 105) | Sexual conduct without bodily contact; imprisonment of three months to two years or a judicial fine; six months to three years where the victim is a child |
| Sexual assault (Article 102(1)) | Violation of bodily integrity through sexual conduct; imprisonment of five to ten years, or two to five years where the conduct remains at the level of molestation, sarkıntılık, a brief and sudden touch |
| Stalking (Article 123/A) | Persistently following a person or trying to contact them, causing serious distress or fear for safety; imprisonment of six months to two years, and one to three years in the aggravated forms |
| Complaint requirement | Harassment in its basic form, sexual assault under Article 102(1) and stalking (Article 123/A(3)) are all prosecuted on the victim's complaint |
| Conciliation (uzlaştırma) | Excluded for all offences against sexual integrity and for stalking (Code of Criminal Procedure, Article 253(3)) |
The same course of conduct can meet the elements of more than one offence. A person who sends dozens of sexual messages and waits outside the victim's home may face charges for both harassment and stalking. Our separate article on stalking offences in Türkiye explains Article 123/A in detail.
Where the victim is an adult, the court chooses between imprisonment of three months to two years and a judicial fine. Under Article 52, a judicial fine is calculated by fixing a number of days, at least five and, unless the law provides otherwise, at most 730, and multiplying it by a daily amount between 100 and 500 Turkish Lira set according to the convicted person's financial situation. The daily range was raised to these figures by Law No. 7499 of 2 March 2024. Where the court chooses imprisonment, Article 50(2) prevents it from later converting that sentence into a fine.
If the victim is under eighteen, the penalty is imprisonment of six months to three years, and the option of a judicial fine is not available. Schools, parents and guardians are often the first to learn of such conduct and should go to the prosecutor without delay.
| Situation | Penalty Range |
|---|---|
| Basic offence, adult victim | Three months to two years' imprisonment, or a judicial fine |
| Basic offence, child victim | Six months to three years' imprisonment |
| Aggravated form under Article 105(2), adult victim | Penalty increased by one half, in effect up to three years |
| Aggravated form, child victim | Penalty increased by one half, in effect up to four years and six months |
| Victim forced to leave work, school or family | Penalty may not be less than one year |
The penalty is increased by one half where the offence is committed in one of five ways listed in Article 105(2). These situations account for a large share of the cases our criminal team sees.
Subparagraph (a) covers harassment that takes advantage of a public office, a service relationship or a family relationship. Subparagraph (b) covers harassment by a guardian, educator, teacher, carer, foster family, health care provider or anyone under a duty of protection, care or supervision. A doctor who makes sexual remarks to a patient, or a teacher who messages a student, falls here.
Subparagraph (c) applies where the perpetrator takes advantage of working in the same workplace. This covers colleagues at the same level, not only supervisors, and it is separate from the employment law consequences described in section 6.
Subparagraph (d) applies where the perpetrator uses the opportunity provided by postal or electronic communication. In practice this covers text messages, messaging applications, email and social media, which is why most online harassment is charged in the aggravated form.
Subparagraph (e) applies where the harassment is committed by exposure, teşhir, showing one's sexual organs to the victim.
The last sentence of Article 105(2) provides that if, because of the act, the victim was compelled to leave his or her job, school or family, the penalty may not be less than one year. Evidence such as a resignation letter, a transfer request or school records can therefore change the sentence considerably.
The basic offence in Article 105(1) is prosecuted only upon the victim's complaint. Under Article 73(1) and (2), the complaint must be made within six months of the day on which the victim knew or learned both of the act and of the identity of the perpetrator, and within the limitation period. If the harassment came from an anonymous account, the six months start when the person behind it is identified, not when the first message arrived. Once the period has passed, the prosecutor cannot open an investigation into the basic offence.
Under Article 158 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, Law No. 5271, a complaint may be made to any public prosecutor's office or to the police or gendarmerie, in writing or orally to be recorded in minutes. A complaint lodged with a governor's office or a court is forwarded to the prosecutor. A foreign victim who does not speak Turkish is entitled to an interpreter during the statement, and the cost is borne by the State under Article 324(5).
For an offence that depends on a complaint, Article 73(4) provides that withdrawal by the victim ends the case. The complaint requirement, however, is written only into paragraph 1 of Article 105. The Court of Cassation, including its Criminal General Assembly, has treated the aggravated forms in paragraph 2, such as harassment by a teacher or through electronic messages, as prosecuted ex officio, so withdrawing a complaint does not end those proceedings in its practice. Our article on withdrawing a complaint under Article 105 looks at this in more depth.
Article 253(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure excludes conciliation for offences against sexual integrity, so the file is not sent to a conciliator even in the basic form. The limitation period for prosecution is eight years under Article 66(1)(e) of the Penal Code, because the maximum penalty does not exceed five years; under Article 66(3) aggravating circumstances shown by the evidence are taken into account when fixing it.
The Labour Law, Law No. 4857, gives an employee two separate grounds to terminate the employment contract immediately, without waiting for the notice period. Under Article 24(II)(b), the employee may terminate if the employer sexually harasses him or her. Under Article 24(II)(d), the employee may terminate if he or she is sexually harassed at the workplace by another employee or by third persons, such as customers, and the employer, having been informed, fails to take the necessary measures. The second ground therefore depends on notice to the employer, so the complaint should be made in a form that can be proved later: an email to human resources, a registered electronic mail message, KEP, or a notarised notice.
Article 26 sets a short deadline. The right of immediate termination on these grounds cannot be used after six working days have passed from the day the employee learned of the conduct, and in any case after one year from the act. An employee who continues working for weeks after a clear incident before resigning risks having the resignation treated as an ordinary one, so the timing should be planned with a lawyer.
An employee who validly terminates for just cause under Article 24 is entitled to severance pay, kıdem tazminatı, under Article 14 of the former Labour Law, Law No. 1475, which remains in force: thirty days' wages for each full year of service. Before suing for severance or other labour receivables, the employee must apply to mediation, which is a condition of the action under Article 3 of the Labour Courts Law, Law No. 7036. Damages for moral harm, manevi tazminat, for the violation of personality rights can also be claimed under Article 58 of the Turkish Code of Obligations, Law No. 6098. Foreign employees should also check how leaving the job will affect their work permit and residence before they resign. Our labour law team handles these claims alongside the criminal complaint.
Sexual messages, unsolicited sexual images, comments under photographs and messages from fake profiles are all within Article 105, and because they are sent by electronic means they are usually charged in the aggravated form under subparagraph (d). Online cases raise three practical problems.
First, identification. Where the account is anonymous, the prosecutor has to obtain subscriber or account data from operators and platforms, and requests to platforms based abroad can take months. The six month complaint period does not start until the identity is known, but the victim should still report early so that data is requested while it is still held.
Second, removal. Article 9 of the Internet Law, Law No. 5651, which allowed a person whose personality rights were violated to ask a criminal judgeship of peace to order removal of content, was annulled by the Constitutional Court (decision of 11 October 2023, E. 2020/76, K. 2023/172). Removal now depends mainly on the platform's own reporting tools and on measures taken within the criminal investigation, so screenshots should be taken before anything is reported or blocked.
Third, jurisdiction. Under Article 8 of the Penal Code, an offence is treated as committed in Türkiye if the act or its result occurs here, so a message received in Türkiye falls under Turkish law even if the sender is abroad and the platform's servers are elsewhere. The real difficulty with a sender outside the country is identifying and reaching that person, which depends on the cooperation of the other state, and the practical prospects should be discussed honestly at the outset.
The Law on the Protection of the Family and the Prevention of Violence against Women, Law No. 6284, offers fast protection that does not wait for the criminal case. Under Article 1, it protects women, children, family members and victims of unilateral persistent stalking. Its definition of violence in Article 2 expressly includes sexual and verbal conduct in the social, public or private sphere, so a woman harassed by a colleague, a neighbour or a stranger can apply. A man harassed by a colleague falls within the law only if the conduct also amounts to stalking or comes from a family member.
Under Article 5, the family court judge can order the perpetrator not to approach the protected person or her home, school or workplace, not to disturb her by means of communication tools, and to stay away from her relatives and witnesses. Where delay would be harmful, police chiefs may impose some of these measures immediately, and the measure lapses if the judge does not approve it within twenty four hours. Under Article 8, an application can be made to the judge, the local governor or the police, the first order can last up to six months and may be extended, and no evidence or document of violence is required for a protective measure. Under Article 13, breach of an order leads to coercive imprisonment of three to ten days, and fifteen to thirty days for each repetition, up to six months in total. Our article on protection orders and preventive measures covers the procedure step by step.
Harassment often happens without witnesses, so the outcome usually depends on how well the evidence was preserved in the first days. The following steps make a real difference:
Messages from applications such as WhatsApp are regularly relied on by Turkish courts, and their reliability can be tested by expert examination of the device; see our article on whether WhatsApp messages can be used as evidence. Secretly recording a conversation requires caution: under Article 133(2) of the Penal Code, recording a private conversation in which one takes part without the consent of the others is itself punishable by six months to two years' imprisonment or a judicial fine. Take advice before recording.
The victim's own statement is evidence, and courts give weight to an account that is detailed and consistent from the first statement to the hearing. Under Article 234 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the victim can ask for evidence to be collected and for copies of documents. The right to a lawyer appointed by the bar association without a request applies to victims under eighteen, while adult victims of harassment are not on the list of offences for which a bar lawyer is assigned on request, so most adult victims instruct their own lawyer.
Because the maximum penalty is well below ten years, sexual harassment cases are heard by the criminal court of first instance, which is described in our article on the asliye ceza mahkemesi. The victim may join the public prosecution as an intervening party at any time before the judgment under Article 237, which gives the right to appeal later.
Where the basic offence carries a maximum of two years, the court may use the simple trial procedure under Article 251 and decide on the file without a hearing, reducing any sentence by one quarter. If convicted, the defendant may benefit from one of the sentencing options in Turkish law: deferral of the announcement of the judgment where the sentence is two years or less (explained in our article on HAGB in Türkiye), suspension of a sentence of two years or less under Article 51 of the Penal Code, or conversion of a sentence of one year or less into a judicial fine or another alternative under Article 50. A foreign suspect may be placed under judicial control during the investigation, including a ban on leaving Türkiye under Article 109(3)(a) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which matters greatly to tourists and people about to relocate.
Yes, if the remarks are sexual and aimed at a specific person, they can be sexual harassment under Article 105 of the Penal Code. Remarks without sexual content may still be insult or another offence.
For an adult victim, three months to two years' imprisonment or a judicial fine; for a child victim, six months to three years. The penalty rises by one half in the aggravated forms.
No. Law No. 7571 amended other provisions of the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, but the text of Article 105 is still the version introduced by Law No. 6545 in 2014.
Six months from the day you learned of the act and of who did it, under Article 73. For the aggravated forms, which are prosecuted ex officio, the eight year limitation period is the outer limit.
It can be. Article 105 does not require repetition, so one clearly sexual message aimed at a specific person can complete the offence.
Physical contact. Harassment involves no contact with the body; any bodily contact through sexual conduct is sexual assault under Article 102.
In the basic form, withdrawal ends the case under Article 73(4). In the aggravated forms, such as harassment at work or by electronic message, the prosecution generally continues.
No. Article 253(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure excludes conciliation for all offences against sexual integrity.
Yes, under Article 24(II)(d) of the Labour Law, provided you informed the employer and resign within six working days of learning the relevant facts. Severance requires at least one full year of service.
Women, children, family members and stalking victims can obtain protective orders under Law No. 6284 from the family court, the governor or the police, for up to six months at first.
Screenshots are accepted but are stronger when the original device and full chat history are kept, so that an expert can confirm them if the defence challenges them.
Yes, within the six month period. A lawyer in Türkiye can file the complaint for you under a power of attorney issued before a notary or a Turkish consulate, although the prosecutor may still need your statement, which takes longer to arrange from abroad.
The criminal court of first instance, asliye ceza mahkemesi, because the maximum penalty is below the ten year threshold for the heavy penal court.
Yes. A judge can impose a ban on leaving the country as a judicial control measure during the investigation or trial, and it remains until lifted or until the case ends.
Sexual harassment under Article 105 of the Penal Code covers any sexual conduct directed at a specific person without bodily contact, whether spoken, gestured or sent by message. The basic offence carries three months to two years' imprisonment or a judicial fine and requires a complaint within six months, while harassment through a position of trust, at the same workplace, by electronic means or by exposure carries a penalty increased by one half and is prosecuted ex officio. Law No. 7571 did not change these rules. Employees have six working days to resign with severance under Article 24 of the Labour Law, and protective orders under Law No. 6284 must be issued without delay under Article 8 of that law.
The decisions made in the first days usually matter most: preserving the messages and footage, deciding whether and when to file the complaint, and, for employees, timing a resignation so that severance is not lost. Whether you are a victim who wants to act or a foreign national facing an accusation, you can discuss your situation in English with our legal team.
