Disturbing Peace And Tranquility Of Persons
Article 123 of the Turkish Penal Code regulates the crime of disturbing the peace and tranquility of persons.
According to the aforementioned article, if a person is persistently telephoned, noisy or engaged in any other unlawful behavior for the same purpose, the perpetrator shall be sentenced to imprisonment from three months to one year upon the complaint of the victim.
Unlawful behavior may be insistently leaving garbage in front of a person’s door, throwing a stone at the window of his room, insistently ringing the doorbell, spying on him with binoculars from a distance, holding a mirror to his face, spying on the victim through the hole he opened without saying a word, following him continuously by car or on foot, etc. However, in the event that the unlawful behavior is carried out once and stopped, it cannot be said that the crime in Article 123 has occurred, since there can be no uninterrupted continuation of the action.
The moral element of the crime is that the perpetrator acts with the specific intent to disturb the peace and tranquility of a person.
In the crime of disturbing the peace and tranquility of persons, the complaint must be made within 6 months from the date of the last persistent behavior and learning the person who did it. Complaints not made within 6 months cannot be made afterwards due to the forfeiture period.
In the crime of disturbing the peace and tranquility of persons, which is one of the crimes subject to complaint, if the complaint is made to the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office with a petition and its annexes in due time, reconciliation will be initiated. If reconciliation is achieved during the reconciliation phase, the behavior is deemed to have never happened. As a result, no compensation can be awarded. If no agreement is reached, the investigation or prosecution continues.
When determining the punishment of the crime, a penalty (imprisonment) between 3 months and 1 year is in question, as stated in the text of the article, taking into account the way the incident occurred.