Reduction Action in Turkey: Civil Code Articles 560–571 for Reserved Shares

1. A reduction action restores the reserved share without automatically annulling the will

The reduction action—tenkis davası—does not begin by arguing that a will is invalid. Article 560 assumes that the deceased made legally effective dispositions but exceeded the disposable portion and thereby infringed a reserved share.

This distinction matters. Annulment under Articles 557–559 attacks validity because of incapacity, fraud, coercion, unlawful content or form defects. Reduction under Articles 560–571 limits the economic effect of otherwise operative dispositions to restore the statutory reserved share.

A claimant should identify the correct remedy before filing. See Annulment of a Will in Turkey for the separate validity action.

2. The case starts with a mathematical reserved-share calculation

Article 560 gives the action to heirs who did not receive the equivalent of their reserved shares. The first litigation task is therefore to identify the protected heir, calculate the legal share, calculate the reserved fraction and determine the deceased’s disposable portion.

The calculation requires a complete estate balance. Assets, debts, qualifying lifetime gifts and the value of testamentary dispositions must be identified. An incomplete asset list can produce an incorrect conclusion that a reserved share was infringed.

The separate guide Reserved Shares in Turkish Inheritance Law explains who holds reserved-share protection and the statutory fractions.

3. Article 561 regulates excessive benefits made to protected heirs

A protected heir can also be the recipient of an excessive testamentary benefit. Article 561 provides that the portion exceeding that heir’s own reserved share can be reduced proportionally where the deceased exceeded the disposable portion.

If several testamentary benefits are subject to reduction, the excess given to a protected heir and benefits given to persons without reserved shares are reduced proportionally under the statutory rule.

The status of the recipient therefore does not automatically shield the benefit. The calculation separates the recipient’s own protected minimum from the additional amount received through the testamentary disposition.

4. Article 562 can allow the heir’s creditors or bankruptcy estate to act

Article 562 creates a special mechanism where a reserved-share heir does not bring the action despite notice. If the heir is bankrupt, the bankruptcy estate, or creditors holding an insolvency certificate against the heir at the relevant date, can bring reduction to the extent necessary to collect their claims and within the heir’s period.

The provision also addresses a disinherited heir who does not object to the exclusion. The creditor mechanism prevents a debtor-heir from simply refusing a valuable inheritance remedy to frustrate existing creditors.

The conditions are specific. A creditor should not assume that ordinary unpaid debt alone creates direct standing under Article 562 without satisfying the statutory requirements.

5. Article 563 establishes proportional reduction of testamentary benefits

Unless the deceased’s contrary intention appears from the disposition, Article 563 reduces appointments of heirs and other testamentary benefits proportionally. This avoids arbitrary selection among beneficiaries where the will does not establish another lawful order.

If a recipient is also charged with performing certain legacies, Article 563 permits that person, when the own benefit is reduced, to request proportional reduction of those legacy obligations unless the deceased intended otherwise.

The will should therefore be read as a whole. A percentage reduction can alter both what a beneficiary receives and what that beneficiary must perform.

6. Article 564 provides an election when the specific property cannot be divided without loss of value

If a specific bequest concerns property that cannot be divided without losing value, Article 564 gives the beneficiary an election. The beneficiary may pay the amount that must be reduced and keep the property, or may demand money corresponding to the disposable portion.

The statute uses the value at the date of judgment for the monetary adjustment described by Article 564. A current appraisal can therefore be necessary, particularly for real estate whose value has changed substantially since death.

Article 564 also applies these rules to reduction of lifetime gifts. The court can thus preserve an indivisible asset while settling the protected heir’s economic entitlement through money.

7. Article 565 lists lifetime transfers that are subject to reduction

Article 565 subjects specified gratuitous lifetime transfers to reduction as though they were testamentary dispositions. The list includes transfers made on account of an inheritance share to a legal heir who later lost heirship; certain unrecoverable asset transfers, debt releases, unusual dowry or establishment capital to descendants; transfers made to settle inheritance rights before death; revocable gifts and non-customary gifts made within one year before death; and transfers clearly intended to defeat reserved-share rules.

The legal category must be proved. Not every lifetime sale or payment is automatically a reducible gift. The court examines whether consideration existed and whether the transfer fits one of the statutory Article 565 groups.

This is distinct from equalisation under Articles 669–675. See Lifetime Gifts and Equalisation Among Heirs in Turkey.

8. Article 566 distinguishes good-faith and bad-faith recipients

A person who received a reducible lifetime benefit and acted in good faith is required under Article 566 to return only what remains from the benefit at the moment the inheritance passes. A bad-faith recipient is responsible under the rules applying to a bad-faith possessor.

The difference can be economically substantial. Good faith is therefore not a cosmetic label; facts showing knowledge of the reserved-share infringement and the structure of the transaction may matter.

Where a benefit under an inheritance contract is reduced, Article 566 also protects the recipient’s right to recover the corresponding proportion of consideration given to the deceased.

9. Article 567 brings the surrender value of certain life insurance into reduction

Article 567 addresses life insurance arranged for payment on death to a third person or later designated to such a beneficiary, and certain gratuitous assignments of the claim against the insurer. The amount subject to reduction is the policy’s surrender value at the deceased’s death under the statutory rule.

The insurance death benefit and the statutory reduction value are therefore not necessarily the same number. The policy and insurer’s valuation records should be obtained.

Foreign insurance policies require additional applicable-law and enforcement analysis, but the Turkish estate calculation should not simply ignore a policy because the insurer is outside Türkiye.

10. Articles 568–569 protect the reserved share against excessive usufruct, annuity and substitute-heir burdens

Article 568 applies where the deceased burdened the estate with a usufruct or annuity that, after capitalisation according to its expected duration, exceeds the disposable portion. The heirs may request reduction or elimination of the burden by giving the disposable portion as provided by the statute.

Article 569 separately protects an heir whose reserved share is infringed by an obligation to transfer the inheritance later to a substitute heir. The excessive part can be reduced.

These provisions show that reduction is not limited to outright gifts. Long-term property burdens can economically infringe a reserved share even when title initially remains within the family.

11. Article 570 sets a mandatory sequence for reduction

Reduction proceeds until the reserved share is completed. Article 570 requires reduction first from testamentary dispositions. Only if those are insufficient does the process move to lifetime transfers, starting from the most recent and moving backward toward older transfers.

Testamentary and lifetime transfers made to public legal entities and public-benefit associations and foundations are reduced last under the second paragraph.

The sequence matters in litigation against multiple beneficiaries. A claimant should build a dated transfer chart and should not simply sue the easiest recipient while ignoring the statutory order.

12. Article 571 imposes both a one-year and an absolute ten-year period

The right to bring a reduction action expires one year after the heirs learn that their reserved shares were infringed. In all events, the right expires ten years after opening of the will for testamentary dispositions or ten years after opening of the succession for other dispositions.

Both periods must be respected. A claimant who knew of the infringement cannot wait nine years merely because the ten-year long-stop has not yet expired.

If annulment of one disposition causes an earlier disposition to become effective, Article 571 starts the relevant periods from the date the annulment judgment becomes final.

13. A reduction claim may always be raised as a defence

The final sentence of Article 571 provides that reduction may always be asserted defensively. This is different from bringing an affirmative action after the statutory period has expired.

If a beneficiary sues to enforce a disposition that infringes the defendant heir’s reserved share, the heir may rely on reduction as a defence even when an affirmative action would be time-barred, subject to the procedural posture.

An heir who needs transfer cancellation, payment or another positive judgment should not rely on this defence rule as a reason to ignore the one-year action period.

14. Foreign heirs must first identify whether Turkish substantive succession law applies

MÖHUK Article 20 generally applies the deceased’s national law to succession but expressly applies Turkish law to immovable property in Türkiye. The reserved-share and reduction analysis for a Turkish apartment therefore follows Turkish succession law even where the deceased or heirs are foreign nationals.

Other estate assets can require a different applicable-law analysis. A single cross-border estate may therefore need asset-by-asset calculations rather than one global percentage applied everywhere.

For the general framework, see Turkish Inheritance Law for Foreigners: MÖHUK Article 20.

15. Build a complete estate-and-transfer chronology before filing

Collect the death certificate, heirship certificate, will and inheritance contracts, title records, bank statements, lifetime gift records, insurance policies, asset valuations and evidence of the date on which the claimant learned the reserved share was infringed.

Prepare a calculation showing the net estate, added-back transfers, statutory shares, reserved shares, disposable portion, disputed benefits and the Article 570 reduction sequence. This makes the requested relief auditable rather than conclusory.

Foreign documents may require authentication and certified Turkish translation. Bakırci & Keskin Law Office has one physical office in Mersin and coordinates Turkish inheritance litigation throughout Türkiye from Mersin, subject to jurisdiction and the agreed mandate.

Conclusion

A reduction action in Turkey under Articles 560–571 restores a reserved share infringed by excessive testamentary or specified lifetime dispositions. The court applies proportional rules, special treatment for indivisible property and lifetime gifts, the Article 570 sequence and the strict Article 571 periods. This remedy is different from annulment and equalisation. Foreign heirs should calculate the Turkish-law reserved share asset by asset, preserve knowledge-date evidence and bring affirmative claims within the statutory periods.