Minister of Justice Akın Gürlek and Minister of Family and Social Services Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş attended the 'Workshop on Increasing the Effectiveness of Family Counseling Services in Legal Processes' held at Dikmen Judge House in Ankara. Minister Gürlek stated that they aim to strengthen a more effective, sensitive and holistic service approach in processes related to family law and said, "A court decision can end a legal dispute. However, the deep scars left by that dispute in people's lives may not disappear as of the day the decision is made. Therefore, we must seek the power of justice not only in the accuracy of the verdict, but also in the extent to which it can affect human life throughout the legal process. There is a fundamental truth that we express at every opportunity; people are at the center of our understanding of justice. Behind every file." "There is a life, a story behind every conflict, a future that needs to be protected behind every child," he said.
'OUR EFFORT IS TO HELP CHILDREN LOOK AT THE FUTURE WITH HOPE'
Gürlek said that divorce is not just the end of the legal relationship between two adults and said, "It is a process that has economic, social and psychological dimensions and can affect parenting relationships, the daily life of children and the future expectations of family members. What is essential for us is the protection of human dignity, the security of individuals, the rights and the best interests of the child. All our efforts are to ensure that our children can feel safe and look to the future with hope in these sensitive periods when family relations are transformed. Intense conflicts between parents during divorce processes cause children to experience anxiety and fear." "Unfortunately, this can cause them to experience insecurities and difficulties in their school and social lives. In particular, forcing children to choose between their mothers and fathers makes them a part of the conflict between adults. I would like to express a strong principle here; a child should never bear the burden of conflicts that adults cannot resolve. We should not leave the mess of adults in the delicate fingers of children."
'THE AIM IS TO EXPAND FAMILY COUNSELING'
Emphasizing that family and parent consultancy services are complementary to the judicial process, Minister Gürlek said, "In contentious divorce cases, the parties can accuse each other of fault in order to prove their rightness. However, resolving the legal dispute between them does not mean that the communication difficulties disappear automatically. At this point, family and parent consultancy services offer an important opportunity to complement the judicial process. These services will enable the parties to make sense of the process they are going through, reduce conflicts, establish child-oriented communication and continue their parenting responsibilities in a healthier way. The purpose here is family." It is not to direct individuals to a specific decision or to produce a solution that will replace the court. The aim is to make support mechanisms more effective, especially to prevent harm to children, by increasing the awareness of the effects of the divorce process, to support minimum communication between the parties, to strengthen accurate information in custody and personal relationship processes, and to enable parents to focus on the needs of their children. These studies also contribute to reducing the difficulties experienced during the implementation of the decisions and preventing the emergence of new disputes. "We are waiting," he said.
'TIME FOR HEARING DIVORCE CASES IS 163 DAYS'
Sharing the statistics on divorce cases, Minister Gürlek said, "According to the data of the General Directorate of Judicial Records and Statistics of our Ministry, the average hearing time of divorce cases decreased from 199 days in 2020 to 163 days in 2025. This decrease is a remarkable development in terms of the effectiveness of judicial processes. However, the main thing for us is not only to make a decision in a shorter time. It is to ensure a legal, fair, reasonable time and a trial process that respects the rights of individuals. 2024 326 thousand 69 divorce cases were filed in 2025, and 309 thousand 479 divorce cases were filed in 2026. It is 235 thousand 187. There are 139 thousand 541 pending divorce cases as of October 8, 2026. These data reveal how wide the judicial dimension of the issue is. The rate of consensual divorce in which the case was accepted in 2025 was recorded as 42.9 percent and the rate of contested divorce was recorded as 21.6 percent in 2026. "It is 44.3 and 21.2 percent," he said.
'THERE ARE 185 JUDICIAL SUPPORT AND VICTIM SERVICES DIRECTORATES'
Providing information about legal support and victim services, Minister Gürlek said, "One of the concrete application areas of our human-oriented justice approach is legal support and victim services. Determining the needs of people who need special support in judicial processes, directing them to appropriate services and facilitating their participation in the process with expert support are among the main goals of this field. Today, we aim to develop this institutional knowledge with a more holistic approach that complements social and psychological support services. The number of our Legal Support and Victim Services Directorates operating since 2019 is today "It has reached 185 in 81 provinces," he said.
'WE CREATED 144 SPECIALIZED FAMILY COUNSELORS'
Minister of Family and Social Services Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş gave information about the efforts to strengthen family counseling services and said, "We have reached 10.8 million citizens with our services ranging from pre-marriage education to family education and family counseling. With our online psychological support and family counseling service, we have brought expert support closer to our families. Today, with our mobile application 'My First Teacher is My Family', we guide more than 2 million users on their journey to becoming parents. With our Family Institute, we further inform our policies with scientific data." "We have been providing free family counseling services in our provincial directorates and social service centers since 2012. In this context, we have established 144 specialized family counseling units. We have conducted studies in 10 provinces with the highest divorce rates and listened to the field how our counseling services can be more effective in this process."
'166 FAMILY WERE DIRECTED TO COUNSELING SERVICES'
Referring to the cooperation with the courts, Minister Göktaş said, "We visited our courts and legal support directorates in 81 provinces in February this year. Following these visits, 166 families in 42 provinces were referred to our consultancy services through the courts in the March-August period. Now, we are taking new steps to make this support stronger during the most sensitive periods of our families. In this context, we implemented the Provincial Action Plans for Strengthening Consultancy Services in the Divorce Process in September. With these plans, especially the judicial authorities "We will further strengthen our inter-institutional cooperation. We will disseminate the guides and training programs we have prepared for mothers and fathers. Thus, we will support mothers and fathers in being able to read and meet the needs of their children correctly, even in the most difficult moments. We will turn each policy we have implemented in the Decade of Family and Population into an assurance that every family all over our country will feel."
'OUR COUNSELORS SUPPORT FAMILIES'
Drawing attention to the importance of family counseling services, Minister Göktaş said, "Every file brought to the courtroom is the story of a family. In this story, there is the effort that a woman and a man have given to each other for years, and the future of a child. A disagreement within the family is a process that reshapes family communication, parenting roles, and the children's world. There may be difficult periods in the life of every family. In this case, the important thing is to handle the problems with common sense and seek a solution without conflict. Because, especially for children, what is decisive is often how the process is managed." "This is where our family counseling services come in; our counselors support families in dealing with their difficulties in a healthier way. They provide spouses with the opportunity to review their decisions on a calm basis. Our goal is to ensure that our families know that they are not alone in this process and can easily access the support they need."
