I recently received the following question: “I am getting married to a Turk soon. I am a foreign citizen and a resident of Turkey. I have been told that I needed to get my birth certificate translated into Turkish, which I have done. I have also been told that the Turkish authorities might need other documents. Can you please explain to me the process of what I need to do to get married? Can you please help me? Thank you.

Turkish intellectual property law, Sometimes lawyers feel that all those violations experienced by their clients will never touch them. This is certainly not the case. It happens to us, too. Just recently, I was wandering in a bookshop, and I checked the legal books section, and what did I find but a legal guidebook for foreigners living in Turkey that had just been released.

On Dec. 15, 2011, a most anticipated law was enacted. Parliament approved a new bill regarding exemption from military service in lieu of payment, which enables men who are 30 years old and older to skip military service in exchange for TL 30,000. According to “The Bill Amending the Law on Military Service,” men who were born before Jan. 1, 1983, and have not yet completed their compulsory military service may instead pay TL 30,000.

The real motivation behind United States Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Turkey was not to discuss the level of cooperation against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). It is true that Biden did speak in detail with Turkish President Abdullah Gül and Parliamentary Speaker Cemil Çiçek about levels of cooperation surrounding the issue with Iraqi authorities; it seems Biden told political leaders both in Baghdad and Arbil there should be no obstacles sourcing from them on U.S. assistance to Turkey against the PKK. Neither the PKK, Syria nor Iranian-Israeli tension was the inspiration behind Biden’s visit.

I’m so sorry that you had this experience and I hope that you will never be faced with such a situation again. Trust me when I say that we as citizens of this country may also face similar problems with authorities. It has nothing to do with the officers and people; in fact, the legal system has some obvious defects. The law does not punish a thief properly. Because the imprisonment for burglary is very small, it falls under the threshold which enables the thief to pay a fine in a criminal court without being arrested.

The USA emphasized Turkey's growing role in the Middle East and beyond, in remarks at the opening dinner of the 2011 Annual Conference on U.S.-Turkey Relations. The event was hosted by the American-Turkish Council, and highlighted Turkey's growing economic leadership. American government officials pointed out when talking to Turks - from students to entrepreneurs to government officials – there is a confidence and optimism, and for good reason.

Why would someone beat someone else? What a nasty topic to write about. I selected this heading greatly disturbed in my mind and heart. My first choice for the heading was “woman killers,” but then I felt that would be too strong. It is even difficult to write about this, but the extent of violence against women in Turkey has reached a peak and we read about a husband killing his wife almost every day.

Applying for an ID number is one of the items on the “to do” list of an expat in Turkey. There has been some confusion about this and I was indeed expecting the banks and other institutions to get familiar with it sooner. The Yabancı Kimlik Numarası (YKN) matter, which stands for Foreigner Identity Number, is an important issue and all resident expats holding proper residence permits should have this number.