Domestic law incorporates the core inclusion criteria of the 1951 Refugee Convention by defining refugee status and conditional refugee status using the Convention refugee definition, including the well founded fear of persecution and the Convention nexus reasons. 

Law 6458 on Foreigners and International Protection, Article 61 provides that a person is granted refugee status after status determination where, as a result of events occurring in European countries, they are outside their country of nationality or former habitual residence and cannot, or because of a well-founded fear of persecution do not wish to, avail themselves of the protection of that country, with persecution linked to race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. 

Law 6458 on Foreigners and International Protection, Article 62 provides an equivalent definition for conditional refugee status for persons fleeing events occurring outside European countries, and it further provides that the conditional refugee is permitted to stay in Türkiye until resettlement to a third country. 

Law 6458 on Foreigners and International Protection, Article 3(1)(b) defines “European countries” as Council of Europe member states and other countries to be determined by the President. This definition matters because it functions as an additional legal filter for whether a person who otherwise meets the Convention inclusion elements is classified under Article 61 as a refugee, or under Article 62 as a conditional refugee as per Article 1(B)(1) of the 1951 Refugee Convention. 

Domestic law also provides other international protection definitions and regimes, such as subsidiary protection and temporary protection, that are different from the 1951 Refugee Convention inclusion criteria.

Law 6458 on Foreigners and International Protection, Article 63 provides for subsidiary protection for persons who cannot be classified as refugee or conditional refugee, but who would face serious harm upon return, namely death penalty or execution, torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, or a serious individual threat because of indiscriminate violence in situations of international or nationwide armed conflict. These criteria go beyond the Convention refugee definition by focusing on serious harm risk rather than the Convention persecution grounds and reasons set out in Articles 61 and 62.

Law 6458 on Foreigners and International Protection, Article 91 provides for temporary protection for foreigners forced to leave their country who cannot return and who arrive at or cross the borders of Türkiye in a mass influx seeking immediate and temporary protection, with the detailed framework to be regulated by regulation. 

Temporary Protection Regulation  Provisional Article 1 provides that, due to events in the Syrian Arab Republic since 28 April 2011, Syrian nationals, and also stateless persons and refugees arriving from Syria, are placed under temporary protection even if they have lodged an international protection application, and that, during the period in which temporary protection is implemented, individual international protection applications are not processed.

The Convention inclusion criteria are reflected in Article 61 and Article 62, but the geographical limitation structure affects classification, and domestic law also uses additional non Convention definitions and regimes for subsidiary protection and temporary protection.