Legal gender recognition in Turkey

Abstract

Despite recent advances in transgender rights in European countries, some legal systems still have barriers such as obligatory diagnosis, sterilization, and medical interventions and incorporating societal acceptance and public order into their discourse. This study dealing with the regime of legal gender recognition in Turkey first reveals critical reciprocating historical developments in national legal regulations for affirming trans identities. Then, the recent conditions laid down by the 2017 Constitutional Court judgments stating that transgender people do not require permanent sterilization any more but require sex reassignment surgery for legal gender change are evaluated. Moreover, this paper explains that while the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights partly reflects the current Turkish legislation, it is not a big step for transgender rights. The findings also underline that the new Turkish regulations appear reformist but are indeed strong measures for legal consistency to solve the dilemma in the previous period in order to maintain the status quo.