A person may dispose of his property as of his death within the limits of reserved portion, by executing during his lifetime a will or by entering into an agreement of inheritance.
Wills
A will may be defined as a unilateral legal transaction expressing the intention of a person, made according to the conditions required by law, which becomes effective as of the death of the person according to Article 295 of the Turkish Civil Code. The subject matter of a will may not be limited to the disposition of property. Thus, by this will, a person may also recognize his child.
Capacity
In order to execute a will a person must have capacity to make fair judgments. Any person who has completed the age of 15 is deemed to have capacity to make a will, if he is able to make fair judgments. This differs from the normal age at which one has capacity to enter into transactions. Mistake, fraud or duress makes a will void.
Form
A will must be in a form required by law. It may take the following forms;
The authentic or official will
This is a will which is prepared by an official such as a notary or a Peace Court judge pursuant to the directions of the testator. The testator then reads the next and accepted its contents by signing it. Thereafter, the will is dated and signed by the official himself. Finally, the testators, in the presence of two witnesses expresses that he has read the text and that it is his last will. The witnesses also sign the statements on the will they found the testator capable of executing the will and that he accepted in their presence its contents.
If the testator is not able to read, the text is read to him by the official in the presence of witnesses. When it is proved by him, he will sign it. It he is unable to sign then it is signed by the officials and by two witnesses.
Such an authentic will is preserved at the office of the notary or Peace Court judge, and a copy may be given to the testator at his request.
Such an authentic will provides security in that it is less likely that such a will be declared void after the death of the testators, as is frequently that case with other form of wills. Another advantage of an authentic will is that it may be made by a person who is unable to read or write. On the other hand, the authentic will entails Notary expenses and does not have the privacy of the holographic will.
The holographic will
The holographic will which is a will that is completely written by the testator himself. It must also include the place of preparation and the date, again in his own handwriting, and it must be signed by the testator himself. Even a letter, if it meets these requirements and clearly shows the intention of a person, may constitute a valid holographic will. It is easy to prepare a holographic will. It may be prepared anywhere, and it enables a person to keep the contents of his will secret. It does not require any witnesses. But it may be rebutted with the assumption that the testator was mentally incapacitated at the time when he signed the will.
The oral will
The oral will which is a will that exists only in exceptional circumstances, when it is impossible to execute an authentic or holographic will, will an oral will be considered valid. Thus, for example, a soldier in the battle field may make an oral will. Here the testator must express his will to at least two witnesses who must in turn write out and sign the will as soon as possible and submit it to a court, expressing that the testator was capable of making his will and that it was make under extraordinary conditions.
Revocation of Wills
Since the execution of a will is a unilateral transaction made without the approval of other persons, the testator may revoke his will is one of its essential characteristics, and the testator cannot before his death deprive himself of the power to revoke it. A will may be revoked in several ways. It is revoked by making a new will. If the new will is in consistent with the former one, it replaces the earlier will. There would not be a need for the new will to be in the same form as the earlier.
An authentic will may be revoked by a holographic will. A new will which is only supplementary to an existing will and only partly alters the existing one without revoking it entirely, is called a codicil.
Other ways of revoking a will in whole or part are by burning, tearing or other-wise destroying it intentionally, or unintentionally, if it in the latter instance its contents cannot be otherwise proved or by crossing out or otherwise cancelling all or part of a will. The disposition by the testators in his lifetime of an article of property specifically bequeathed in a will constitutes a partial revocation of the will that is to say with respect to such bequest.
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