Unbeknown to most of the foreign people living in Turkey is that after having lived here for a year, if you drive a car you must obtain a Turkish driving licence.
For anyone who does not have a Turkish licence and are unfortunate enough to have an accident, then they will be faced with all involved costs as their insurance company will not pay out and will even face a heavy fine or jail sentence.
The process of obtaining a licence is not a difficult one but can be a little daunting for those of you who don’t speak Turkish.
Beware!
The problems don’t stop here though as there are so many ex-pats driving around in Fiat Doblos and similar vehicles. These vehicles are classed as commercial and in Turkey it maybe illegal for a foreign person to drive them.
For any further information or advice please feel free to contact the free Citizens Advice Centre on 0256 612 32 07 anytime. Please note that this is an important piece of information and if you have a friend in this category then please inform them.
Above is a sample of a Turkish driving licence.
Regardless of what some people think, the law in Turkey is what it is and people need to be careful not to misinterpret the rules. This is not a case of taking something from the internet and running it through the Google translation program. We have been informed of this law by the chief of the traffic police Kuşadası. Some people are also saying that if it was illegal then why are we able to buy these vehicles, tax and insure them? Are you willing to take a chance in case of a serious accident? I wouldn’t. Some of the businessmen in town will tell their customers anything in order to get a deal through.
