Tax for mobile devices bought from foreign countries

I have heard about an strange rule in Turkey about mobile devices (mobile phones, smart phones) which are bought from foreign countries. Should I go to tax office and ask for registering my smart phone which is bought from another country, and pay an amount of tax for that? Please let me know if this is true!

Hi Bijan,

If you want to use  Turkcell, Vodafone or Avea network and buy their sim card,- sign customer contract- you have to go their customer offices and pay 115 TL by representing your passport.
After tahat your phone and IMEI number will be registered and freely used. Otherwise you cant use your phone with a Turkish GSM provider.

I know its strange but true :)

if you gonna stay for long yeah you need to have your phone registered if only for a couple of days you can buy a sim card but i'll stop working after a month

If you are gonna live long term and do not want to register your phone. You can buy a cheap phone for 50 tl that is already registered. But if your phone is smart phone and you need 3g support. it is better to register itç if you are staying longer than 3 months.