Foreign public documents need to be authenticated in order to be valid in Turkey.
In order to perform any procedures in Turkey, foreign citizens usually have to submit foreign public documents to Turkish Authorities. None of these documents shall be valid or accepted unless it carries required approvals.
According to Turkish Law, documents are divided in to two: official certificates and private documents. Official documents issued by Turkish Authorities are presumed to be authentic and constitute conclusive evidence in the eyes of the Turkish Law.
In Turkish Law official certificates are regulated by public authorities and in order to accept an official document issued by foreign authority to have the same effect before the Turkish Court, there is a need for an additional transaction. Official certificates issued by foreign authorities are not valid in Turkey without certain approvals. Such as marriage certificates, foreign notary certificates, power of attorneys, declarations about personal status or civil status information, birth certificates etc., all of these official certificates need to be authenticated in order to be valid in Turkey.
The additional transaction is the certification of whether the foreign document is official or not. In Turkish Law there are different mechanisms for certification of documents. There are four ways.
According to Turkish Code of Civil Procedure Article 224
Yabancı devlet makamlarınca hazırlanan resmî belgelerin, Türkiye’de bu vasfı taşıması, belgenin verildiği devletin yetkili makamı veya ilgili Türk konsolosluk makamı tarafından onaylanmasına bağlıdır.
‘’ In order for the official documents by foreign state authorities to be valid in Turkey, depending on the documents’ approval of the state authority or the relevant Turkish consular authority to which the document is issued.’’
- Authorities are determined by each state because of the principles of sovereignty. But usually these authorities are institutions under the ministries of foreign affairs.
Türkiye’nin taraf olduğu milletlerarası sözleşmelerin yabancı resmî belgelerin tasdiki ile ilgili hükümleri saklıdır.
‘’ The provisions of the international conventions to which Turkey is a party regarding the confirmation of foreign official documents are reserved.’’
- This provision is referring Hague convention and other international convention or treaties which may remove or change the process of legalization of foreign documents between the contracting states.
In order to accept a foreign official document as an official document and a conclusive evident in Turkey, these documents must be approved, certified by relevant authority or Turkish Consulate.
After the approval, the foreign official documents obtain the title of official certificates in Turkey and constitute conclusive evidence. They have the same effect in Turkey only if this official document approved by relevant authority or Turkish consulate.
According to TCCP article 224, the foreign documents need to be signed whether by foreign state authority or Turkish consular. But in practice, the foreign state document needs to be signed by both. Which means the foreign documents needs to have two approvals on (or in the back of) it.
- First approval is from the foreign state authority which is usually an office works under the ministry of foreign affairs.
- After the approval from the ministry of foreign affairs the approved document needs to be approved by Turkish Consular within the same country as the foreign state.
Consulate also stamps a sentence stating that “without any consideration for the contents”. This stamp/statement constitutes that: legalization of the foreign state document does not grant that content of the document is valid. Content of the document may be accurate or inaccurate. The approval only constitutes the foreign state document have been received/signed by the mentioned foreign authority. The approval of the Turkish Consular only certifies that this document is official and authentic in which document is issued has competence and the signature belongs to the component person/authority.
- Consulate only confirms that the document is authentic. It doesn’t state that content of the document is accurate.
Apostille Convention
Full name of the convention is ‘’Abolition to Requirement of Legalization on Foreign Public Documents’’. Apostille, is a simpler, shorter and rather cost-efficient way to legalize foreign official documents.
- Apostille is free of charge in Turkey. But some of the contracting states require certain fees in order to legalize the documents since it is a matter of sovereignty.
This Convention eliminated the certification procedure which is supposed to be executed by Turkish Consulates. Apostille Convention stamps a statement of approval. Apostille granted document by the competent authorities of the state where the document is drawn up will be sufficient.
With the Apostille, all required to do is getting Apostille from the institutions appointed by the states.
After legalization by apostille, the official document that has apostille shall not be only valid in Turkey but also in other contracting states of this Convention.
- Currently 90 states and European Union are part of the Apostille Convention.
Translation of The Foreign Document
Last but not least, the foreign state document has to be translated to Turkish in order for it to be taken into account by Turkish Authorities. The translation of the document can be done in foreign state or in Turkey. If the translation has been done in foreign state, then the translation needs to be approved by the Turkish Consular. If not, the other alternative is that the foreign state document can be translated in Turkish with any Turkish Notary approval.
Att. Melih Karahan