Article 1 defines a village as a settlement with a population of less than 2,000 individuals.
[1] Articles 9 through 11 of the Village Law regulate the positions of the headman (muhtar) and council of elders (köy ihtiyar heyeti), requiring that they be elected every four years by secret ballot.
It was amended in 1984 to permit the Council of Ministers to grant an exception to the bar on foreign ownership.
As of 2012, Article 88 still bars foreigners from residing in Turkish villages without permission from the Ministry of the Interior.
[9][10][11] The law had been in force for 85 years without major reorganisation by that point.