ABSTRACT
The first penal code of the Republic of Turkey was Law no. 765 (adopted on 1 March 1926). Intentional homicide was regulated under art. 448, and required a term of imprisonment of 24 to 30 years. Aggravating circumstances were laid down in arts. 449 and 450, requiring –respectively – life-time imprisonment and capital punishment. Art. 451 provided for a special provision on causal link: where death was a result of the combination of the act of the perpetrator and other (pre-existing or subsequent) factors, the punishment would be mitigated. Art. 452 regulated intentional acts of ‘wounding’ which caused death – the perpetrator would be held responsible for the death on the mere basis of causality. Art. 453 provided for a mitigating circumstance where murder was committed by the mother against the new-born under the motive of ‘saving (her) honour’. Finally, art. 455 regulated unintentional homicide.
