Appendix A: Soy Adi Kanunu (The Surname Law)
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APPENDIX A: SOY ADı KaNUNU (THE SURNaME LaW) Republic of Turkey, Law 2525, 6.21.1934 I. Every Turk must carry his surname in addition to his proper name. II. The personal name comes first and the surname comes second in speaking, writing, and signing. III. It is forbidden to use surnames that are related to military rank and civil officialdom, to tribes and foreign races and ethnicities, as well as surnames which are not suited to general customs or which are disgusting or ridiculous. IV. The husband, who is the leader of the marital union, has the duty and right to choose the surname. In the case of the annulment of marriage or in cases of divorce, even if a child is under his moth- er’s custody, the child shall take the name that his father has cho- sen or will choose. This right and duty is the wife’s if the husband is dead and his wife is not married to somebody else, or if the husband is under protection because of mental illness or weak- ness, and the marriage is still continuing. If the wife has married after the husband’s death, or if the husband has been taken into protection because of the reasons in the previous article, and the marriage has also declined, this right and duty belongs to the closest male blood relation on the father’s side, and the oldest of these, and in their absence, to the guardian. © The Author(s) 2018 183 M. Türköz, Naming and Nation-building in Turkey, https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56656-0 184 APPENDIX A: SOY ADI KANUNU (THE SURNAME LAW) V. Those who are of age are free to choose their surname. In the case where a person of age has been taken into custody for rea- sons of mental illness or mental weakness, his name shall be cho- sen by his father, in his absence, his mother, and in her absence, his guardian. VI. On the recommendation of the highest civil official, the Republican public prosecutor may request those whose names go against the prohibitions in Article III to change these, or those who use the names of prominent historical figures to change these, and can ask the court to prohibit the use of those names. Those titles which have been given by law are exceptions to this article. VII. From the publication of this law, those who either do not have surnames or those who wish to change their surnames, must declare their names for registration and population registries in the manner designated by the government within two years of the publication of this law. Every document that is given for this matter will be excluded from stamp fee. VIII. The authority to resolve disputes arising in surname choice pro- cesses and to give names to those who have not chosen one of their own accord and to orphans and to decide whether a name is suited to the form demanded by the law belongs to the highest civil official where the main registry is located. IX. Governors and district governors are authorized to employ suit- able civil servants in other state offices to assist in population offices until the work is finished. X. Those who wish to change their surnames after the time period designated by this law are subject to the articles concerning this in the civil code. XI. District governors and governors may penalize those officials who have been neglectful in registering surnames into popula- tion registries and birth certificates by cutting their salaries. District governors can cut one week of salaries while governors can cut up to fifteen days. These decisions are final and cuts will be made from the first salary that’s to be paid. XII. Those who don’t notify officials of their surnames in the time period designated by the law will be charged a light monetary penalty of five to fifteen lira. Aldermen and members of elders committee who have been neglectful in the duty to be given APPENDIX A: SOY ADI KANUNU (THE SURNAME LAW) 185 them by the government will receive a penalty from ten lira to fifty lira. These penalties are given by the local administrative delegations and are confirmed by governors or district governors. XIII. A regulation showing the application of this law shall be created. XIV. This law will go into force six months after its publication. XV. The interior ministry is entrusted with the task of enforcing this law. APPENDIX B: SOY aDı NIZaMNaMEsI (THE SURNaME REGUlatION)1 SECtION I: SPECIal JUDGMENts Article 1: Every Turk must carry a surname separate from his proper name (öz ad). Those without surnames must choose a surname and register these in population registers and birth certificates by 2/7/1936. Article 2: In speaking, writing, and signature, the proper name comes first, and the surname last. Just as it is acceptable to spell out all the letters of the proper name and surname, in speaking, writing or signing, it is also permissible to use solely the surname without the proper name, and in a signature the first letter of the proper name, and if there are two proper names, the first letters of each name, or only the initial of one name and the other spelled, and the surname written in full. Article 3: According to Article 30, governors or district governors will choose the surnames of those who fail to choose and register a surname in the population records by 2/7/1936. From this day on if surnames are not written in the population registry they may not be used. Changes made in surnames will not be counted until they are written in the popula- tion register. Article 4: According to the stipulations of the Kanuni Medeni (Civil Code), surnames can be changed with a court decision. Those who have registered or unregistered surnames from before the publication of the law, can change and take a new surname by 2/7/1936; however those who have changed their old surname or those who took new surnames may not change these without a court decision. © The Author(s) 2018 187 M. Türköz, Naming and Nation-building in Turkey, https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56656-0 188 APPENDIX B: SOY ADI NIZAMNAMESI (THE SURNAME REGULATION) SECtION II: THE SURNaME Article 5: The new surnames must be taken from the Turkish language. Article 6: The surname can be used either alone or with the -oğlu (son of) ending. It is mandatory to use the -oğlu ending in names referring to historically prominent people and legally given titles. Article 7: It is forbidden to add endings or words such as yan, of, ef, viç, iç, is, dis, pulos, aki, zade, mahdumu, veled, and bin referring to other eth- nicities, or taken from another language. Those endings which have been added may not be used and must be replaced with -oğlu. Article 8: [Names such as] Arnavutoglu, Kürtoğlu, which in a general manner refer to another ethnic group/nation or those like Çerkes Hasan oğlu and Boşnak Ibrahim oğlu that indicate other nationalities, or those like Zoti and Grandi that are taken from another language may not be used or re-used. Article 9: Names referring to tribes or clans may not be used or re-used. Article 10: Names indicating rank and civil officialdom in the old or new state cadres may not be used or re-used. Article 11: Names which are not suited to public morals, those which are ridiculous or insulting may not be used or re-used. Article 12: Surnames referring to elders who have attained recogni- tion/fame in history may not be taken unless they are supported by offi- cial regulations and documents. These [names] may not be used or re-used. Article 13: Surnames which go against Articles 7–12 shall not be regis- tered in registries or birth certificates. Those which are entered will be scratched out and replaced with [another name] and an explanation attached. Article 14: Families who come from the same lineage may, if they don’t have a surname or if they want to change, choose a common surname and register it in the population registers and birth certificates. Article 15: If people who are not of the same lineage in a village, town, or city choose the same surname, the [surname of the family] who applies first will be accepted and the other one is changed. If [the second family] insists on not changing, [their name] can be distinguished by the addition of an adjective or addition such as (buyuk (big), kucuk (small)) and be transcribed in population registries and birth certificates. APPENDIX B: SOY ADI NIZAMNAMESI (THE SURNAME REGULATION) 189 In the application of this law, each population office in the cities will be considered a town. Exceptions to this article may occur in cases where family members in one location take the same surname as their relations in another location. SECtION III: THE RIGHt aND DUtY tO CHOOsE tHE SURNaME Article 16: Children whose ancestry is known will carry the name of their father. Children whose ancestry is not known take the surname of their mother. Only if the father recognizes them, or if there is a decision by a judge can these children take their father’s name. Article 17: The adopted child shall take the surname of the one who adopted [him/her]. If the adoption agreement is annulled, the adopted child shall take his own father’s surname.