Divorce in the Old Turkish Law and its comparison with the current law

Divorce is one of the forms of termination of the marriage and it changed from society to society and through time in the historical process. In this process of change, a variety of systems and principles were accepted. Although Old Turkish Law was based on the principles of will and free divorce system; today?s Turkish Divorce Law is based on the principles of fault, will, shake the foundation, impracticability, actual separation and a system that bases divorce on various reasons and the judge?s order.In Turkish Law before Islamic period, the husband was able to demand divorce without suggesting any reasons while wife was able to demand divorce for reasons like; adultery, cruelty and impotence. With the acceptance of the Islamic religion, the rules of the Islamic Law were started to be applied. In this era, divorce was usually realized in the ways of: Talaq (divorce of a wife by her husband) and khula (divorce by mutual agreement). In 1917, with the acceptance of ?the Family Law Decree?, a new age started in Turkish Divorce Law and divorce reasons which are similar to current reasons were arranged. According to this, women were able to demand divorce for physiologic defects or illness that hamper marriage, not paying the debt for maintenance, absence and incompatibility from the court.Today, with the Turkish Civil Code; adultery, attempt against life, very bad or discreditable behaviour, infamous crime and dishonorable conduct, desertion and mental disease have been arranged as private divorce reasons, while disturbance of the unity of marriage, agreement of the spouses and actual separation have been arranged as general divorce reasons.In both old and current law systems, with the divorce came through, some results arises for spouses and children.