Turkey has been a party to International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea 1972 (the “COLREG”) and more or less adopted it’s provisions under domestic law with the Statute on Preventing Collisions at Sea (the “Statute”) on 12.12.1997.

Despite COLREG having been amended multiple times over the years following the introduction of the Statute, Turkey, elected not to amend this Statute directly through the applicable legislative process under national laws but rather recognised the amendments through either the Decrees issued by the Council of Ministers’ or pursuant to the tacit acceptance procedure. As COLREG was so rigidly accepted in Turkey, there was no doubt that these amendments would be followed once they entered into force. However, this situation still presented an ambiguity in legal theory and was the subject of some debate.

This ambiguity surrounding the topic was finally resolved, as Turkey introduced the Regulation on Preventing Collisions at Sea (the “Regulation”) on 12 March 2024 by way of a Presidential Decree. The Regulation cites the relevant law as its legal basis and article 5 of the Regulation makes an explicit reference to COLREG and stipulates that the convention shall be applied directly in practice.

The Regulation and Turkish translation of COLREG was published on the website of General Directorate of Maritime Affairs. Since the Directorate is vested with the responsibility of publishing the applicable version of COLREG on their website, this is expected to remove the legislative hardships of adopting any potential amendments, and ensure their immediate adoption.

This legislation, overall, is not expected to change anything in practice. However, for Turkish flagged vessels, it is now necessary to keep one copy of the Regulation along with COLREG on board as part of essential documents.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like to have more detailed information on the COLREG or have any other queries.