Tarkan was born in Alzey, near Frankfurt, in Germany, and was the fifth of the six children of Ali and Nese Tevetoglu. His father was a factory worker and later managed to run his own business. His mother is a housewife. When Tarkan was 13, Ali took the decision to leave Germany and return to Turkey. This decision caused a schism in the family. While Tarkan's elder sisters Nuray and Gulay refused to leave, four other children were lost for a while in a new country whose conservative ways were inconvenient for them. But their shock was nothing compared to the parents' problems. Ali was desperately looking for his place in the homeland that rejected him. Moving the family from the little town of Karamursel to Istanbul and then to Karamursel again, he tried to provide a normal living to the family.

Tarkan decided to live separately from his family when he was 18:he stayed in Istanbul while his family left for Karamursel. Shortly afterwards his father decided to go back to Germany...where he fell terribly ill. In 1995 Ali passed away. A couple of years later Nese remarried to Seyhan, an architect. Recently the Tevetoglu family is divided between three countries. Nese and Seyhan live in Istanbul, along with Tarkan's youngest and favorite sister Handan, who is an archaeology student in university. His brothers Adnan and Hakan live in Germany and are employed with the Mercedes company. Tarkan himself lives in New York, but he also spends some time in Turkey.

Tarkan says he has not been very close to his father, but the memory of Ali lives in him. He has a very close relationship with his older sisters. "They never treat me like a star!-Tarkan tells everybody with great pleasure. -They still treat me like a child, spoiling me with my favorite food (roast chicken) and putting me to sleep in my little niece's bed, with toys!" On the other hand, his nieces and nephews are his most strict critics. Serap, daughter of his brother Adnan, keeps all the newspaper articles about her uncle and watches very closely the enhancement of his career... Tarkan also seems to be very close to his brothers, but Nese and Handan are the ones he loves the most tenderly.

"I'm happy to have such a family - and lots of friends. They never miss the opportunity to see my shows and I always feel their warm support. That's one good reason to go ahead".