The Temporary Law of Deportation, also known as the Tehcir Law (Turkish pronunciation: [tehˈd͡ʒiɾ]; lit. 'deportation' in Ottoman Turkish), or officially, the "Vakt-ı Seferde İcraat-ı Hükûmete Karşı Gelenler İçin Cihet-i Askeriyece İttihaz Olunacak Tedabir Hakkında Kanun-u Muvakkat" (Provisional Law Regarding Measures to Be Taken by the Military Against Those Who Oppose Government Actions During Wartime) was a law passed by the Ottoman Council of Ministers on May 27, 1915 authorizing the deportation of the Ottoman Empire's Armenian population. While the law was allegedly temporary, the Ottomans' main motivation was to settle the Armenian question once for all, therefore permanently.

The resettlement campaign resulted in the deaths of anywhere between 800,000 and over 1,500,000 civilians, in what historians widely characterize as the Armenian genocide. The bill was officially enacted on June 1, 1915, and expired on February 8, 1916. On 18 December 1918, the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies declared the Tehcir Law and the temporary law which authorized selling of confiscated Armenian property rescinded and illegal. The Ankara Government reissued the laws on 14 September 1922.

The Tehcir Law was part of the euphemistic "special measures" against the Armenian population taken by the Ottoman Empire during World War I. This was coupled with a second set of orders given to the "Special Organization" for the systematic elimination of the evacuated population during the death marches, and the appropriation of their vacated properties.

The Ottoman archives document that the Armenian deportations started as early as March 2, 1915. After the expiration of the Tehcir Law, deportations and massacres continued. On September 13, 1915, the Ottoman parliament passed the "Temporary Law of Expropriation and Confiscation," stating that all property, including land, livestock, and homes belonging to Armenians, was to be confiscated by Ottoman authorities.

Before the Ottoman parliament implemented the "Tehcir Law", there was a circular by Talaat Pasha. According to Talaat Pasha, a law passed on 11 February 1915 allowed for parliament to go into an early recess on March 1, but allowed the government to issue temporary laws in their absence. In the night of April 24, 1915, Talaat, who was the minister of interior at the time, ordered 250 Armenian intellectuals to be deported from Constantinople.

In May 1915, Mehmed Talaat Pasha requested that the Ottoman Cabinet and the then Grand Vizier Said Halim Pasha legalize a measure for relocation and settlement of the Armenians to other places. Talaat's words were "the Armenian riots and massacres, which had arisen in a number of places in the country are a threat to national security."

Tehcir Law was officially a "temporary" law that expired on February 8, 1916. Back It was a civil law, planned, implemented and enforced with an office (created by the law) to coordinate the activities under the name of "Migrant General Directorate" (Ottoman Turkish: Muhacirin Müdüriyet-i Umumîyesi). The civil law gave the military an enforcing power only if there were parties opposing the implementation. The rules and regulations of the law, as published in the Takvim-i Vekayi (Ottoman official newspaper), were public and they were shared with all the political parties.

One Ottoman Archival material, dated from July 12, 1915, suggests that massacres were part of those measures implemented against the Armenians. The Turkish Martial Court supports this by referring to documents that claim that the main reason for the evacuation was annihilation.