How to search Turkish Court of Cassation (Yargıtay) decisions with AI (2026)

Short answer: Decisions of the Court of Cassation (Yargıtay), Türkiye’s highest court for civil and criminal cases, are published on the court’s Decision Search (Karar Arama) site. The case-law section of the Ministry of Justice’s Legislation Information System (Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi) and the UYAP Precedent Search (Emsal Karar) page also carry Yargıtay decisions. On these sites you search by keyword, chamber, docket and decision number and date. If your AI assistant is connected to Yargı PRO, you can ask it to search decisions by chamber and date range, find decisions that deal with the same issue in different words through semantic search, and retrieve the full text with a link to the source.

Searching the official sites, and their limits#

On the court’s site and in the Legislation Information System you find a decision by keyword, chamber, docket (esas) or decision (karar) number and decision date. Parties’ identities are removed from published decisions. These sites are built around keyword matching: to find decisions that resolve the same issue without using your search terms, you have to search again with different words. You open the results one by one and copy the citation by hand. Do not assume every decision has been published; a decision that does not appear may still exist.

What Yargı PRO covers for Yargıtay#

Each result line shows the chamber, the docket and decision numbers, the decision date, whether the decision has become final (kesinleşme) and a passage containing your search term. The same search can also cover Council of State (Danıştay), regional court of appeal and first-instance decisions.

Decisions are in Turkish. Your AI assistant reads the Turkish text and can translate and summarise it for you; keep the search terms in Turkish.

Searching with your AI assistant#

You can write in plain language; the assistant turns your request into a search query. Knowing the query syntax still helps, because it tells you what to check in the results:

• Words separated by spaces work like “or”; to make each concept required, prefix it with +: +"kira bedelinin tespiti" +"hak ve nesafet" (“determination of the rent” and “equity”).
• A phrase in quotes is searched exactly; - excludes a word.
• Chamber, date range and docket/decision number are separate filters; results are sorted by relevance or by date.
• Semantic search does not match words: it returns the decisions closest in meaning to a sentence describing the facts or the legal issue.

Example requests:

• “Search Yargıtay 3rd Civil Chamber decisions since 2024 on the equity discount (hak ve nesafet indirimi) in rent determination cases, newest first.”
• “Retrieve Yargıtay 3rd Civil Chamber decision E. 2026/484, K. 2026/3681 and summarise its reasoning.”
• “Here are my facts: … Find similar Yargıtay decisions with semantic search and list them with full citations.”
• “Is there a Civil General Assembly decision on this point? If so, compare it with the chamber decisions.”

When you use the chamber filter, bear in mind the division of work: the chamber that handles a subject can change over the years. For older years, it is safer to search by keyword and date without a chamber filter and see from the results which chamber dealt with the issue.

A real search: the equity discount in rent determination#

On 3 November 2026 we searched Yargıtay 3rd Civil Chamber decisions given after 1 January 2024 with Yargı PRO’s tools, using the query +"kira bedelinin tespiti" +"hak ve nesafet". The tool reported 37 results. The first was:

Yargıtay 3rd Civil Chamber, E. 2026/484 K. 2026/3681, 09.06.2026. The first-instance court took the monthly net rent of TRY 80,000 set by the court expert, applied a 10% equity discount because the tenant was a sitting tenant, and set the rent at TRY 72,000; the regional court of appeal dismissed the appeal on the merits, and the Chamber upheld the judgment. Full text of the decision

On the same day we also ran a semantic search to ask about the rate of the discount: “kira tespit davasında eski kiracı lehine yapılacak hakkaniyet indirimi oranı” (the rate of the equity discount in favour of a sitting tenant in a rent determination case), Yargıtay decisions only, decision years 2024 onwards. The second of the five results we asked for was:

Yargıtay 3rd Civil Chamber, E. 2024/93 K. 2024/4260, 11.12.2024. “…belirlenen bedelden %5 ile %20 arası bir oranda hakkaniyet indirimi yapılarak sonucuna göre karar verilmesi gerekirken…” (“…whereas a decision should have been given after applying an equity discount of between 5% and 20% to the amount determined…”). The Chamber reversed the regional court of appeal’s judgment. Full text of the decision

Before applying the second decision to your own case, look at its facts: the tenant was a merchant (tacir), and the dispute concerned the period in which Article 344 of the Turkish Code of Obligations was suspended for merchant tenants. The Chamber therefore assessed the rent under the contract clause providing for the rent to be reset “according to the conditions of the day”. Semantic search finds the right topic; whether the decision fits your facts is for you to decide by reading the text.

What to watch for#

• Verify the citation: Open the source link for every citation the AI writes, and check that the chamber, docket number, decision number and date match the text. More on this: AI hallucinations and fake citations.
• Finality and later stages: After a reversal, the lower court may insist on its judgment (direnme) and the dispute may go to the Civil or Criminal General Assembly. Search for the later stages of any decision you rely on.
• Decisions unifying case law: If there is a decision unifying case law (içtihadı birleştirme kararı) on the point, look at it before the chamber decisions; these decisions are binding.
• Dates: A change in the law or in a chamber’s view can make an older decision obsolete. Sort your search by date as well.

Which plan?#

Yargıtay, Danıştay, regional court of appeal, Constitutional Court and European Court of Human Rights decisions are in every Yargı PRO plan. Search tools that return a list of results do not count against the monthly usage pool; retrieving the full text of a decision and semantic search do. The 14-day trial includes Pro access and requires no payment details. Your AI subscription is billed separately. Plans and prices: Pricing. To connect your AI: How to connect Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini to Turkish law sources