Court finalizes Beykoz land ownership for heirs on Ottoman records

The dispute over land in Istanbul's Beykoz district began as a court case that was reopened in 2009. It centred on who legally owned land on which homes had stood for decades.

In 2018 the court's ruling became final. It registered the land to heirs of the earlier owners, relying on Ottoman-era records as evidence of title. Once a ruling is final, it can no longer be appealed in the ordinary way, so the land registry (the tapu office) had to follow it.

Many residents did not know about the case at the time. They reportedly learned that the land was no longer registered as they had assumed when they applied under the zoning amnesty, a government scheme that lets owners register unlicensed buildings. The application process exposed the heirs' registered claim.

The ruling mattered because it put the legal status of long-occupied homes in question. It became the starting point of the wider dispute between residents and the heirs, which later reporting describes as affecting about 50 years of settlement in the area.