It is generally accepted that each time must contain four “general elements” without the existence of one of which, it is not possible to define an act as a crime that is punishable by law.

1. The Legal Element

The legal element can be defined as the requirement that a law that designates the act in question as a crime and that shows the appropriate penalty must exist at the time of the commission of the act.
Article 38 of the constitution states that “no one shall be punished for any act which dsid not constitute an offence under the law in force at the time it was committed. No one shall be given a heavier penalty for offence than the penalty applicable at the time when the offence was committed.” Punishment and penal measures shall be established only by law. Accordingly article 1 of the Turkish penal code states that “no one may be published for an act which is not expressly defined by the law as a crime; no one can be subjected to a punishment not prescribed by law’. In Turkish Law, therefore, the source of all crimes and punishments is a provision of the written law.
The legislature must define every crime and its penalty in the statutes, and the judge can apply a law to an act if it is exactly the same as the one defined in the law. Interpretation by analogy is prohibited in criminal law. Penal provisions have no retroactive effect, except when they favour the accused (PC art. 2)

a. Sources of the Turkish Criminal Law

During the period of Ottoman Empire, Islamic Law was the foundation of the criminal law practice in Turkey – the shariat courts applied Islamic Law. Though some statues existed relating to penal matters, they were limited to incomplete listings of the most serious crimes and their penalties, rather than a complete and systematic penal code. The first Turkish Criminal code in a moderns sense was the Imperial Penal Code published in 1858. This was the Turkish translation of the French Penal code of 1810 and it remained in force until 1926.
The main code in use today is the Turkish Penal Code (law under 725), which is based almost entirely on the Italian Penal Code of 1889, adopted by Turkey in 1926. this code has been amended many times and more than half of its articles have been changed. The Code specifies most crimes and contains the general principles of Turkish Criminal Law, which are applicable to all criminal matters, unless otherwise specified by another statute (PC art 10) the general principles are found in Book One (Art. 1-124); felonies are specified in Book Two (Arts 125- 525) and misdemeanors are specified in Book Three (Arts 526-592).
In addition to the PC, there are many penal statutes, which contain specific crimes and regulate special fields of criminal law – such as Military Penal Code, Law for Combating Terror and others. There are also many civil statues that criminalize certain acts – e.g Code related to Press, Code on Intellectual Property and others.
Taking into account that the PC lost its systematic structure due to the major amendments, and the fact that the existence of the criminal regulation in specific codes create certain difficulties in application, proposals for changing the PC entirely appear from time to time. The last version PC proposal was prepared in 2001. However none of these projects have yet succeeded in replacing the PC. The legislative organ prefers to be inspired by certain regulation in these Proposals and introducing amendments to the actual PC, rather than replacing it entirely.
In addition, custom and tradition, prudence, jurisprudence and legal doctrine are accepted as indirect sources of criminal law. This means that they cannot be used as enactments of crimes and punishments, but can be used for interpretation and other similar purposes.

b. Scope of Application of the Penal Code
(1) Scope of application in terms of place
The Turkish Penal Code adopts the principles of “territoriality” as a general rule (PC Art 3) this means that whoever commits a crime in Turkey shall be punished in accordance with the Turkish Law’ In this sense “Turkey” specifies the physical territory of the Turkish Republic, as well as ships, airlines and other vehicles under the Turkish flug and also territory that is considered Turkish Land, outside its borders.
A few exceptions to this general rule are regulated under articles 4 through 8, where the concepts of individual and universal jurisdictions are accepted in an accessory manner. This means that under certain conditions in order not to let a criminal go unpunished, certain crimes, which are committed outside of Turkish territory by Turkish citizens or against them, or by foreigners or against them, will be prosecuted and punished in accordance with Turkish Law. Therefore it is possible to conclude that PC adheres to the territoriality of law, not in an absolute manner. Where necessary, territorial jurisdiction is completed by individual or universal jurisdiction.
According to article 10a of the PC, if a crime committed outside of Turkey and the accused is adjudicated in Turkey, with the exception of crimes committed against Turkey, a comparison will be made between the law of the foreign country and that of Turkey and whichever results in fovour of the accused will be preferred in application.
If a person is adjudicated outside of Turkey and a verdict is reached, it can generally be said that, with the exception of crimes against Turkey, the principle of non bis in idem (i.e the principle of double jeopardy) will apply. Execution of penalties given by foreign courts against Turkish citizens is quite restricted in Turkey - it is subject the conditions such as reciprocity, request of the officials of that foreign country, the condition that the penalty does not violate the public order and such. It must also be noted that Turkey is party to ‘European Convention o n the International Validity of Criminal Judgment’.
Article 9 of the PC contains some provisions concerning extradition. Constitutionally and according to article 9 of the PC, extradition of a Turkish citizen to a foreign state is prohibited. Also, extradition of a foreigner to another state for prosecution for martial, political or related felonies is not allowed. If a foreign state requires extradition, the Court of General Criminal Jurisdiction in the area in which the person resides in Turkey, determines the citizenship of the person whose extradition is requested and the nature of the crime attributed to him. Although article 9 of the PC is quite limited, Turkey is also party to certain treaties and conventions, which contain pro- visions concerning extradition. Amongst these documents is the ‘European Convention of Extradition’ which stated that a person may be extradited if the attributed crime necessitates imprisonment and if the attributed crime is not of a political or marital nature. A State is free to request a guarantee for the preventions of the life of the person if the request for extradition is accepted, and the death penalty is existent in the country to which the person is extradited, but not in the country accepting the request. It must be noted that Turkey greatly restricted the type and number of crimes that are punishable by death in the 2001 Constitutional amendment. Today death penalty can be given only for crimes of war and imminent threat of war.
A crime will be considered committed in Turkey if the material acts leading to it are realized in Turkey or if the result is born in Turkey. If it is possible to separate the act and the result, it will be sufficient that either of them has taken place in Turkey. For crimes in succession, it is enough to have one of the crimes in the chain, committed in Turkey. For attempts and crimes by negligence, the crime is considered to be committed in Turket if the result would have been born in Turkey.

(2) Scope of application in terms of time
In accordance with article 38 of the Constitution, Article 2 of the PC provides that “no one shall be punished for an act that is not designated as a felony or misdemeanor by law at the time of commission. Furthermore no punishment shall be given for an act that is decriminalized after its commission: If such a punishment has been ruled, its application and legal consequences become void. If the provision of a law that is in effect during the time of the commission of the act and a law that is published after the date of commission are not the same, provisions that are in fovour of the accused shall be applied.
Therefore, provisions related to substantive criminal law apply, as a rule, only to acts that are committed after the date the provision becomes effective. However, if the later provision is in fovour of the accused, then it will be applied retroactively. The method for deciding which provision is in more fovour of the accused is realistic application of both provisions in full to the case at hand and comparing the results.
(3) scope of application in terms of person
In principle, the Turkish Criminal law applies to all persons. However, exceptionally, the President of the Republic is not responsible for the crimes he or she commits during office, except treason. In addition, members of the Parliament are exempt from criminal responsibility for acts related to their Parliamentary office. This protection known as “absolute immunity” protects the said person from criminal responsibility even after their office has terminated. Moreover, foreign officials under diplomatic immunity are not subject to prosecution. In addition, certain military agreements exempt foreign military officials from application of Turkish criminal law.

2. The material Element of Crime,
The material element of a crime is comprised of an act. An “act” is composed of a conduct or deed, a result and a lien of causality between the two. Therefore criminal thought itself is not punishable; there must also be completed criminal acts.

However. An unsuccessful attempt to commit an intentional felony may be punished. ‘anyone who commences the execution of an intended felony by effective means, and who due to reasons beyond this control cannot complete the acts necessary to complete the felony, shall be punished. (PC Art. 61, incomplete attempt); and ‘anyone who completes all the attempts for the execution of the felony he intended to commit but where, due to reasons beyond his control. The felony does not take place, shall be punished… (PC Art. 62, complete attempt) punishment for such attempt is lighter than in the case of completed felonies.

The necessity of proving a criminal act assures greater objectivity in the application of the law and punishment and is a safeguard of personal liberty.
Moreover if a person voluntarily discontinuous the execution of a felony, he will be punished only if his act so far constitute a crime. However there is no general principle for those, who after the commission of crime, show remorse and act regretfully (for some special provisions see e.g PC Art 523).
An important debate under this element is whether the notion of criminal responsibility for legal persons should be introduced in the PC. In doctrinal writings, there has been active debate regarding the criminal responsibility of the legal persons. However it can be stated briefly there is a prevailing tendency in the doctrine to accept that the constitutional principles of the ‘personal liability’ and ‘non bis in idem’ and the fact that legal persons cannot ‘act’ prevent holding legal persons criminally responsible.

3. The moral Element of a Crime (Mens Rea)
a. Criminal Capacity
The Turkish Penal Code embodies the Classical School concept of the moral responsibility of the criminal. To be found guilty of a crime, a person must have both criminal capacity and criminal intent at the time o commission of the crime. Thus, Article 46 of PC provides that ‘Anyone afflicted with a mental illness which causes a completed loss of consciousness or of freedom of action at the time of commission of the act, shall not be published. However, during the preparatory investigation the decision to subject such person to custody and medical treatment must be rendered by the justice of the Peace and during the final investigation by the competent court. The custody and medical treatment continues until such person is cured, but a defendant accused of a crime entailing heavy imprisonment may not be released prior to one year. The person thus placed in custody and subjected to medical treatment shall be released by the competent court upon a hospital board report of the institution where the person was kept. If during the treatment period, the condition appears to recur the person shall be placed in custody and subjected to medical treatment by order of the judge or of court. Article 47 provides that if responsibility is not wholly in existent, but is diminished, the punishment shall be mitigated by certain proportions. The distinction between article 46 and 47 are not entirely specific in certain areas and there are proposals for combining the two articles.
Article 48 provides the principles in Article 46 and 47 shall be applicable to anyone who, during the commission of a crime, was incapacitated for extraneous reasons. However acts committed while under the voluntary influence of alcohol or narcotics, are excluded from the provision of this article.

Criminal capacity also depends upon age. ‘Whoever has not yet attained the age of twelve at the time of the commission of an act shall not be prosecuted or punished’ (PC Art. 53). Between the ages of 12 and 18 responsibility may vary according to the mental development and the age of the child. According to the Code, children over 11 and less than 15 years of age have criminal responsibility provided that they have the ability to make fair judgments but punishments shall be reduced. (PC Art. 54) For children between 15 and 18 years of age, it is not necessary for the prosecution to prove judgment ability however sentences are mitigated proportionally (PC. Art 55)
In all these cases, the punishment of juveniles is reduced as specified by related articles. If the offender is under the age of eighteen years at the time of he begins serving his sentence, punishment restricting his personal liberty will be served in a reformatory or in a special section of the adult penitentiaries. If the child is below the age of responsibility (11 years old) and if his act constitutes a felony punishable by imprisonment for more than one year, he shall either be placed in the custody of his parent or guardian, or be committed to an institution under government administration or supervision. Such institutional custody will last until the child reaches eighteen years of age, but it is subject to revocation at any time if deemed necessary for the purposes of education and reform. It can be stated that The Turkish Penal Code and the Law Regarding Establishment of Juvenile Courts regarding juvenile delinquents, are not wholly sufficient to fight the juvenile delinquency problem in Turkey. Such judicial organization as a juvenile court system with special penal procedures, a probation system, and youth institution with sufficiently qualified personnel, are under way at present. Without these, little can be done to protect society from future habitual offenders.

b. Criminal Intent
Criminal intent has two forms: Intent and negligence. According to the Article 45 of the PC, absence of criminal intent precludes punishment of felonies. There is an exception for those cases where the law prescribes a punishment for consequences of the perpetrator’s for his act or omission unless je proves he had no criminal intent.
Even though the PC does not define these notions, criminal intent may be formulated as a willing and conscious desire to commit the action and to expect its consequences. Criminal intent can be subcategorized as “premeditated intent” (i.e. facilitating the commission of the action by careful planning beforehand), ‘intent’ and ‘eventual intent’ (i.e. intent that is indeterminate during the commission of the action, but is accepted to have existed after the result is achieved intentionally).

Negligence is a simpler form of responsibility; it may be formulated as a willing and conscious desire to commit the action but not desiring its consequences. It may be due to reasons such as acting without care, failure to take the necessary precautions or inexperience if profession. Doctrinally negligence is subcategorized as ‘simple negligence’ and ‘conscious negligence’ (or negligence with prevision) recently conscious negligence has also been introduced to Article 45 of the PC. It is described as a willing and conscious desire to commit the action but not desiring its subsequences that are perceived consciously. Conscious negligence is a heavier form of criminal responsibility and the punishment is1;3 times heavier if the negligence is found to be conscious. It must be borne in mind that the negligence form of a crime may be punished only if it is indicated so in the PC.
Turkish criminal law includes rare instances where criminal responsibility is prescribed even though no intention is attributable to accused. (e.g. PC. Art 451, 452;2, 458 or Law of the Press Art 16) these cases are described as examples of ‘objective responsibility’ and severely criticized in the criminal doctrine, because as stated above, nullum crimen sine culpa is an essential principles of criminal law and no one should be held responsible for results which they have not accused intentionally.
For certain felonies, PC requires the existence of a ‘special intent’ in addition to the ‘general intent’ (e.g. PC Art 176,429)

c. Conditions Affecting Criminal Intent
Mistake of law does not affect guilt. Ignorance of the law is no defense (PC44) but mistake of fact may be relevant if it operates on the existence of the criminal intent. It is stated in Article 52 that if a person, as a result of a mistake or defect commits a felony against a person other than the one he intended, the matters of aggravation arising from the status of the injured party shall not be imputed to the perpetrator. Such cases may be dealt with as if the felony had been committed against the person intended, and the perpetrator shell benefit from any matter of mitigation applicable to the felony. Also the mistake of fact may sometimes negate the criminal intent necessary to commit a crime.
If it is proven that the commission of the act was provoked, unjust provocation is applied for mitigation the sentence, because then the intent is believed to have been strongly influenced by factors outside of the perpetrator (for special cases of provocation see (PC Arts 272, 485 and for the general article of provocation, which applies if no special provocation is specially described for a certain crime see PC Art. 51)

4. Action must be Unlawful
The fourth general element of crime is the requirement that the action not be justified legally. Instances, where an action may be justified are primarily described in article 49 of the PC as ‘No punishment shall be imposed if the perpetrator has acted:
(1) In order to execute to provisions of a statute or an order given by a responsible authority, execution of which is the perpetrator’s duty;
(2) In immediate necessity to repel an unjust assault against his own or another’s person or chastity
(3) In necessity, if there was no other means or protection, to protect himself or another person against a grave and certain danger not knowingly caused by himself.
In the first case if the order issued is contrary law, the punishment for the felony resulting from the violation of the law shall be suffered by the person who had issued the order. Whoever, while performing an act in one of the cases of justification mentioned above, surpasses the limits prescribed either by law, by competent authority or by necessity shall be held responsible for it, but the punishment will be lessened at the rate specified by article 50.
An action may also be justified by instances regulated elsewhere such as the Civil Code, Article 461 of the PC or by exercise of One’s Constitutional rights.

C. Participation in a Crime
Participation is one who has taken part in a crime knowingly and willingly either before or during the commission of the act. There are several degrees of participation in a crime. Turkish Criminal Law adheres to the system of duality for punishment of participants. Therefore a person who commits the acts in question directly or who abates another to commit a felony or misdemeanor is deemed a principal and full participant (PC Art 64) and is subject to the full punishment for the act.

There are also (material or moral) ‘accessories’ to a crime (PC Art 65) anyone who participate in a crime by inciting or encouraging another to commit a crime, by promising him aid and assistance after commission of the act or by giving instruction as to the manner of commission of the crime (moral); by procuring the means which will aid the commission of the act, or by facilitating the commission of the crime through rending aid and assistance before or during the commission of the crime (material) is an accessory. Accessories are subject to lesser punishment than the principals. However if the role than an accessory plays in the commission of the crime is so indispensable that the crime could not have been committed without this person’s participation, then that accessory participant is punished as a principal participant (PC Art. 65;2)
According to Turkish law, participation in a crime is not generally a ground for aggravation of penalty, except in some specific cases (PC Arts 417, 479, 491 ff.) a specific intent for cooperation to commit a crime must exist for responsibility. Moreover the act in question must be of the same nature for all participants and executions of the crime in question must begin.

Aggravation causes are reflected to those participants who have knowledge of the cause at the time of participation. Mitigating circumstances affect perpetrators only if they are of a factual nature (e.g PC Art 522 mitigates the punishment for all perpetrators whereas PC Art 523 applies only to those participants who act in a particular manner).

D. Multiplicity of Crimes and Punishments
The general principle in criminal law is that there are as many crimes as criminals results. However in some instances, exceptions are made in favour of the perpetrator and several crimes are treated not separately but in a combined manner. In these cases, punishment is lighter, compared to separate punishment for each result.

If a person is convicted of several crimes (multiplicity of crimes) or if the same person, after a judgment, is convicted of another crime committed previously or thereafter (multiplicity of punishment) all punishment shall be united in accordance with the provisions prescribed in articles 70 and after (PC Art 68, 69). Thus more than one sentence of life imprisonment result in the life imprisonments of not less that twenty-four rears each, life imprisonment shall be applied. If a person is sentenced to identical kinds of temporary punishment restricting liberty (or to fines of the same kind) the total of the punishment shall be applied.
On the limits of addition of punishment, the PC provides as follows; the total of punishment of the same category restricting liberty may not exceed thirty-six years of heavy imprisonment or twenty-five years of imprisonments or ten years of light imprisonments. The total of various kinds of punishments restricting liberty may not exceed thirty years (PC. Art 77)
If a person has violated several provisions of law by a single act, he shall be punished under the provision of the article involving the most severe punishment (PC Art. 79)
Whoever commits a crime in order to be able to commit or conceal another crime, or while perpetrating a crime commits another act punishable by law shall be punished as in the cases of multiplicity of crimes or of punishment if such acts or crimes are not, by provision of law, elements of the principal crime or if they do not constitute aggravating circumstances (PC Art 78). Violation of a provision of the law several times in the course of the execution of a decision to commit a crime, though such violations occur at different times, is considered a single crime; but the punishment to be imposed shall be increased by 1;6 to one half (PC Art. 80)

III. PUNISHMENT; PREVENTION OF CRIME
A. General
1. Nature of Punishment; Prevention Measures

Punishment is aimed at expiation as well as general prevention of crime and reformation of the criminal. An ideal punishment must be reformatory nature as well as disciplinary. It must respect human dignity and create an opportunity for the criminal to develop his or her abilities for reintegration to the society. According to article 17 of the Turkish Constitution ‘No one shall be subjected to ill treatment or torture no one shall be subjected to penalty or treatment incompatible with human dignity’.
The Turkish Penal Code prescribes different punishments for different crimes such as death penalty imprisonment for life and such. In addition to these ‘principal punishments’ there are ‘secondary’ (or accessory) and ‘complementary’ punishments. It is accepted that certain ‘secondary’ penalties are in fact preventive measures (e.g. confiscation of property (PC Art. 36)

Other measures, which are aimed at rehabilitation of the perpetrator, are not defined as punishments but as ‘reformatory measures’. Examples of these measures are custody and treatment of mentally ill persons (PC Art 46), commitment to an institution or placing children who do not have criminal capacity under the custody of their parents, and custody and treatment of drug addicts and alcoholics (PC Arts 404,573)

2. Punishments

As stated earlier, the PC divides crimes into two main categories; felonies and misdemeanors. They are distinguished from each other by the severity of punishment.

Punishments for felonies are heavy imprisonment (for life and up to 60.000.000 TL – 15.000.000.000 TL for felonies and 15.000.000.000 TL -1.500.000.000 TL for misdemeanors) disqualification from holding public office, temporarily or for life. For misdemeanors they are; light imprisonment (up to 2 years) light fine, disqualification from practicing a profession of trade (PC Art 11)

Heavy imprisonment for more than five years disqualifies the convicted person from holding public office for life; heavy imprisonment from three to five years disqualifies a person for a period equal to the sentence (PC Art 31) conviction of a crime may have other consequences; civic disqualification, depravation of paternal rights and the legal rights of a husband, payment of damages or restitution of property, payment of court expenses, as well as the secondary penalties referred to above.

The law of Execution of Penalties modified the manner of implementation of the pertinent article of PC. This law divides punishments into two categories; (1) long or short term punishment restricting personal liberty (more than six months and less than six months and (2) fines. It has also repealed ‘banishment’ as a penalty and has completely modified the system. This Law introduced alternative solutions for preventing the negative consequences of short term imprisonment, such as obligatory conversion of sentence to revocation of a license. These measures are in compliance with the principle that punishment should be applied as ultima ratio.
It has also introduced a system along the lines of probation for short term imprisonment (punishments and measures applicable in place of short term imprisonment); and it has made provision for the observation of convicted criminal during long term imprisonment. The Turkish penal system does not permit indeterminate sentences expect for reformatory measures for drug addicts and alcoholics.

B. Application of Punishment
Judges are given some discretion in fixing punishment. In some cases they may choose between imprisonment and fine; and that decide whether to impose the minimum or maximum punishment or something in between.
The following factors are to be taken into consideration in determining the punishment; provocation, recidivism, and discretionary mitigating causes. Thus, if a person commits a crime in the heat of anger or under influence of grief caused by an unjust provocation, the punishment prescribed for the crime shall be reduced; this reduction is greater if the provocation is grievous or severe (PC Art. 51). In terms of article 81 of the PC, if a person commits a new crime within ten years of serving a sentence of more than 5 years, or after such a sentence is set aside or within five years in case of other punishment shall also be increased. Finally, apart from statutory matters of mitigation, wherever discretionary matters of extenuation in fovour of the offender are accepted by the court, heavy imprisonment for thirty years, instead of heavy imprisonment for life, shall be imposed. Other punishments shall be reduced by not more than one sixth. Article 29 of the PC specifies how these factors are to be applied: ‘unless explicitly provided by law, punishment can neither be increased, nor decreased, nor changed. Where the law provides for aggravation or mitigation, the Court will first determine punishment for the act without considering grounds for aggravation or mitigation and then shall increase or decrease the punishment as required by the aggravation or mitigation.

If several grounds for aggravation or mitigation concur, increase or decrease shall be made first for the earlier grounds for aggravation or mitigation. Increase or decrease for later grounds shall be applied to the punishment resulting from the increase or decrease made for the earlier grounds. Where some of the grounds require an increase and others requires a decrease of punishment, those requiring an increase shall be applied first. In all events, the perpetrator’s age, this state of mind, matter or discretional extenuation and recidivism shall be taken into consideration last, in this order. In increasing or decreasing the punishment, the limits prescribed by law for every punishment shall not be exceeded, except where otherwise specifically provided by law.

A public prosecution shall be dismissed, if the perpetrator of an offence punishable only by fine (or, by three months of imprisonment maximum) deposits in the concerned office, before the hearing in court, the minimum amount of the fine prescribed for this offence or, in case of imprisonment, the sum of which is the total of the minimum amount prescribed by the Law of Execution of Penalties for a day of imprisonment. If the amount is paid before a public prosecution has been initiated, the perpetrator shall not be prosecuted at all.

C. Suspension of Punishment and Conditional Release
The Turkish Criminal Law does not provide for probation or parole as such. However suspension of punishment, conditional release, and some measures for short-term prisoners in the Law of the Execution of Penalties can be considered as similar to parole.

The law on the Execution of penalties includes regulation regarding suspension of punishment. This is in fact suspension of the execution of the penalty. For crimes with relatively light penalties, the judge in certain circumstances (no previous punishment other than a fine, and if the court considering the past conduct and moral attitude of the offender believes that suspension of this punishment will cause him to abstain from committing a crime in the future), the penalty is suspended for a certain period (five years for felonies and one year for misdemeanors) after the sentence. If, during the period prescribed period, the convicted person does not commit another crime of a certain specified degree of seriousness, the conviction will be considered as nonexistent. Otherwise both punishments shall be executed separately. The decision to grant this suspension lies with the judge. Since no provision is provided for the convicted person during this period. The legal nature of this situation whether it is similar to a pardon or not, is debatable.
Conditional release can also be considered as similar to parole: If a convicted felon spends a certain portion of his or her punishment in ‘good behavior’ he is released. This is considered as a right for the convicted person. If during the remaining period of the sentence, the convicted person does not commit another crime of a certain specified degree of seriousness, the punishment will be accepted as executed. Otherwise, the execution of the sentence as well as punishment for the new crime will be completed. For conditional release, the regulation brought by Law for Combat against terrorism that does not require ‘good behavior’ is particular importance.

D. Dismissal of Action and Setting Aside of Punishments
In some cases, the penal action and prosecution may be dismissed or the punishment may be set aside (PC Arts 96-120) the causes of dismissal and setting aside are: death of the accused or convict, amnesty, pardon, withdrawal of the complaint, prescription and payment of fine before hearing.
The death of the accused shall terminate public prosecutions. The death of a convict will set aside the conviction, including light and heavy fines not yet executed, together with all its consequences (PC Art 96)
Amnesty terminates public prosecution and sets aside punishments together with all their penal consequences (PC Art 97). A pardon according to its terms, may set aside, reduce or change the punishment and remove a disqualification. However a pardon will not ordinarily affect the penal consequences of the conviction or secondary punishments, unless the contrary is specified in the pardon law (PC Art 98).
According to article 87 of the Constitution, the Grand National Assembly is empowered to grant pardons and amnesties. The argument that amnesties are used as political tools by the Grand National Assembly and are not conform to the general principles of punishment have led the legislative organ to modify the conditions to grant pardons and general amnesty. Also the President of Republic may commute a sentence or grant a pardon to group of chronic illness or old age (Cons. Art 104).
Where a public prosecution depends on a complaint by the grieved party, the public prosecution shall be discontinued if such a party waives his suit or complaint. However his waiver will not bar execution of punishment, unless the contrary is provided for the law ( PC Art 99 and 444)
Except as otherwise prescribed by law, public prosecution shall be dismissed upon the lapse of the periods stated in the law, varying from 6 months to 20 years (PC Art 102). The lapse of these periods shall be stopped or ceased. In case of stopping, the period cannot exceed a certain limit. Punishment shall also be set aside with the lapse of the periods, varying from eighteen months to thirty years, indicated in article 112. However lapse for punishment shall not ceased but can be stopped. There is no maximum time limit for stopping the lapse of punishment. It must be noted that there is no dismissal for prosecution or punishment for certain crimes indicated in the first chapter of the second book of the PC (certain felonies against of the state)

E. Restoration of Rights
Articles 121-124 of the PC provide for the restoration, upon the completion of a sentence, of rights taken away as a result penal of conviction. The decision to restore divested rights is made by the court, upon the request of interested parties. The procedure for such restoration is given in the Turkish Code of Criminal Procedure (Arts 416-420).