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Measurement of a stream offset and cosmogenic dating (10Be) of the alluvial surface into which the stream incised yield a preferred late Holocene slip rate of 18.6 +3.5/−3.3 mm a−1for the central part of the North Anatolian fault (NAF) at Tahtaköprü, Turkey; use of variable cosmogenic production rate (VPR) models yields a slightly slower rate of ∼16.4 +6.4/−4.5 mm a−1. The offset drainage (Karanlık Dere), which flows southward almost perpendicular to the east‐west trace of the NAF at the site, is displaced right laterally by 55 ± 10 m, with no vertical displacement. A 10Be age of ∼3 ka (∼3.5 ka VPR) from the top of a boulder on the best preserved part of the incised alluvial surface provides the most reliable maximum age for the onset of incision; 11 10Be ages from cobbles collected from the cultivated surface to the south yield younger ages, consistent with exhumation, erosion, and mechanical mixing during plowing. Our 18.6 +3.5/−3.3 mm a−1rate is similar to other geologic slip rates measured along the NAF, all of which cluster between 15 and 20 mm a−1over a wide range of (103–105) timescales. All of these geological rates, however, are slower than the ∼25 ± 2 mm a−1short‐term rate of elastic strain accumulation measured geodetically. This disparity suggests the possibility that the NAF is experiencing a strain transient in which the lower crust beneath the fault is deforming faster than its long‐term rate.