Law 6292 passed on 19/4/2012 allows the ownership of land which has been taken out of classification as forest to be transferred to private individuals. However it will probably not relieve the ECHR of the burden of having to review the majority of complaints about property rights infringements in Turkish forest areas.

Law 6292 decrees that Land declassified as forest by clause 2A and 2B of law 6831 will now no longer necessarily remain under government ownership. This law allows the de facto occupiers of such land to purchase it at 70% of its taxable value if they fulfill certain criteria and provided they make a formal application to purchase the land they occupy within 6 months of the law coming into force. A further discount of 20% can be obtained in the price for cash payments.

This law also gives previous owners of such land (those who may have owned the land before it was classified as forest in the first place) the right to reclaim their land within 6 months of the law coming into force – without any payment being required. (This right had been given to them by clause 2 paragraph 5 of Forest Law 6831 but it had not been applied because of objections by the Turkish Constitutional Court.)

All previous laws passed specifically allowing the sale of forest land that used to be forest but that was declassified as forest have been overturned by the Constitutional Court because they were found to violate clauses 169 and 170 of the Turkish Constitution. See the following Constitutional Court judgments :

1992/48 E. 1993/14 K.  30/3/1993;

2001/382 E.  2002/21 K. 23/1/2002;

2009/24 E.  2011/75 K. 12/5/2011.

It remains to be seen if the relevant clauses of this law will also be cancelled by the constitutional court.

According to law 6292 any declassified forest land not reclaimed by its previous owners or purchased by its legally recognized occupiers within 6 months will remain in government possession and the government will be allowed to sell it off at its discretion to the highest bidder.

The Turkish government claims that this law will remedy many property rights abuses caused by the forest laws in Turkey. However this is doubtful because this law can only be applied to land that was been taken out of classification as forest because it ceased to be forest. This is about 2% of total forest area in Turkey. About 410000 hectars of land have been declassified from being forest compared to a total officially recognized forest area of over 21 million hectares. According to the Turkish Government a large portion of declassified land is near centers of population and is illegally occupied in some way or other for development. As a result although the amount of land taken out of forest area is small in proportion to total forest area it will help resolve a disproportionate amount of property disputes.

It is a well known fact that the Turkish Government systematically cancels the valdidity of title deeds to privately owned land located in forest areas.

It is also a well known fact that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that such takings of private land violate Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 of the European Convention of Human Rights because of the failure to pay compensation.

There have been at least 41 judgements on this subject so far against Turkey and thousands of complaints are pending. Because of this the Turkish Government has been under increasing pressure from the ECHR to provide an internal remedy to this situation.

Law 6292 is a remedy, but only for those landowners whose land happens to be located in areas that were declassified from being forest.

This law does not prevent the Turkish Government from continuing its practice of systematically cancelling the validity of title deeds to privately owned land located in forest areas.

This law seems to be more of an attempt to raise money than a serious effort to remedy the property rights abuses in forest areas. In fact it is being publicly touted by the Turkish Government for its money raising potential. It will probably not relieve the ECHR of the burden of having to review the majority of complaints about property rights infringements in Turkish forest areas.