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Human Rights and Equality Institution of Türkiye (HREIT) fined Canakkale Municipality ₺256,357 (about $5,217) after ruling that a wedding fee charging foreign nationals 10 times more than Turkish citizens amounted to prohibited discrimination.
HREIT opened an investigation after reports emerged that the municipality's 2025 fee schedule set the marriage ceremony charge at ₺2,500 (about $51) for Turkish citizens but ₺25,000 (about $509) for foreign nationals.
The board concluded that the municipality had violated the prohibition on discrimination on the grounds of race and ethnic origin and imposed the maximum administrative fine.
In its written defense, Canakkale Municipality said marriages involving foreign nationals required additional document verification because the Interior Ministry's e-Municipality Marriage Module did not cover foreign citizens.
According to the municipality, documents therefore had to be checked separately through consulates, embassies, governor's offices or district governor's offices, requiring additional staff time and administrative resources.
The municipality also said that before 2025, when marriage services were offered free of charge, applications from people seeking to marry foreign nationals had come in from different parts of Türkiye, which it argued had disrupted services for local residents.
It said the new tariff was introduced partly to prioritize residents living within the municipality's service area.
HREIT found that the municipality had failed to provide concrete data showing that the additional procedures created costs large enough to justify the 10-fold fee difference.
The board noted that many of the verification procedures consisted of relatively brief correspondence, telephone calls or emails and said these steps did not establish a proportionate financial burden.
It also found that charging foreign nationals an additional amount on top of the standard wedding fee created unjustified differential treatment between people in comparable situations.
HREIT further found that the higher fee disproportionately restricted access to marriage services, and that the municipality had not substantiated its claim that applications involving foreign nationals had significantly disrupted local residents.
The board said the additional fee, which remained in the municipality's 2026 tariff, amounted to differential treatment that could not be justified on a reasonable or proportionate basis under Türkiye's Law No. 6701.
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