12 hour rule
The 12 hour rule as it is called by some is not a new thing invented by Turkish Airlines but the required rest time one needs to have in accordance with the flight duty and rest time limitations laid down by the DGCA of Turkey.
One may feel fit to fly arriving for check in right after traveling to one's designated home base but the journey there already counts as duty time and will probably lead to the flight not being legal. Normally no one will know when one actually arrived at their home base and how much rest time one actually had but if there is an incident of any kind investigators will look at every detail and they will find out that you were not legal to carry out this particular flight. The recent runway excursion and hard landing incident shows that at any time something can occur which will lead to investigators making sure that company employees are abiding by regulations.
Sometimes the official rest times will not necessarily lead to us feeling more rested, nevertheless it is our responsibility as pilots to make sure we are rested according to the regulations and not according to what we feel is right (meaning less than 12 hours at home base).
I don't quite understand how a company insisting on this is labeled "a third world outfit"? On the contrary....