What is the crime of robbery (yağma / gasp)?

The crime of robbery (yağma), also known as gasp, occurs when movable property in another’s possession is taken by using “force” or “threat”. Regulated between Articles 148 and 150 of the Turkish Criminal Code (TCK), robbery is an unlawful act directed against the victim’s property.

The crime of robbery occurs when the perpetrator, in order to benefit from movable property, uses force and threat to compel the possessor of the property to hand it over to them or not to resist its being taken from where it is. For this reason, the subject of the crime is any movable property. According to the case law of the Court of Cassation, immovable property cannot be the subject of the crime of robbery.

Since robbery is the taking of movable property in another’s possession, without the possessor’s consent, by using force or threat in order to benefit from it, it has also been described as “theft by force”, or as obtaining an unjust benefit by means of coercion used against a person. The crimes of theft and robbery share the same common elements; the only point at which they differ, or in other words the additional element robbery has compared with theft, is the use of force or threat to take the property (General Assembly of Criminal Chambers (CGK), Decision 2021/114).

The act common to theft and robbery is “the taking of property belonging to another”. Robbery is a compound crime which, in addition to the act of “taking property belonging to another”, which is the element of theft, is embodied by the use of “force” or “threat” while the property is taken.