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Türkiye’s top court has issued a precedent-setting decision in a divorce case that centers on undisclosed psychological treatment before marriage.
The ruling has drawn attention from legal experts and families across the country because it clarifies how courts may assess trust within marriage under Turkish civil law.
The case began at a Gaziantep Family Court and later reached Türkiye’s Supreme Court of Appeals.
It overturned lower court rulings and found that a spouse who hid psychological treatment before and during marriage acted in a way that undermined trust within the union.
A man filed for divorce after learning that his wife had received psychological treatment and used medication before marriage.
He stated that he discovered this only after marriage, when he observed what he described as unusual behavior. The file shows the couple lived together for about one and a half months before the woman returned to her family home.
Witnesses told the court that the woman displayed abnormal behavior in public during the marriage. Message records between the couple showed that the woman admitted she hid her psychological condition and treatment from her husband.
The local family court rejected the divorce request. It ruled that a psychological condition before marriage could not serve as grounds for divorce. The Gaziantep Regional Court of Appeal upheld this view. It stated that events before marriage could only form the basis of a marriage annulment case if legal conditions applied.
The man appealed to the Court of Cassation. The high court found the reasoning of the lower courts insufficient. In its decision, the court stated that the woman did not inform her spouse about psychological treatment before marriage and continued to hide this throughout the marriage. The court described this behavior as trust-damaging.
The ruling stated that the woman held full fault in the breakdown of the marriage.
It concluded that the conflict reached a level that made shared life impossible. The court ruled that the husband had legitimate grounds to file for divorce. It overturned the rejection decision and sent the case back to the regional court for a new assessment.
Family law courts in Türkiye often distinguish between events before marriage and conduct during marriage.
Lower courts in this case held that pre-marriage circumstances could not support a divorce claim. The court introduced a different interpretation by focusing on continued concealment after marriage.
The decision does not declare psychological treatment itself as a reason for divorce. Instead, it centers on deliberate concealment and its impact on trust between spouses.
Legal observers in Türkiye view this as a guiding precedent for future family court cases involving undisclosed medical or psychological history.
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