Turkey
Answer ... Although they are both regulated under the International Private and Procedural Law, recognition and enforcement have separate rules and thus separate legal consequences. With the recognition of a foreign judgment, the relevant judgment has two important consequences in the Turkish legal world:
- Upon recognition, a foreign court judgment acquires the force of a final judgment. A recognised foreign judgment is just like a final judgment rendered by a Turkish court; and
- A recognised foreign judgment constitutes conclusive evidence.
However, upon recognition, the judgment in question does not yet become enforceable in the Turkish legal system. In order for the foreign judgment to be enforceable, an enforcement decision must also be issued by the Turkish courts.
Therefore, the most obvious difference between recognition and enforcement is the enforceability of the judgment. Enforcement is thus a superior legal instrument that also covers recognition. Depending on the legal result requested, it should be decided whether a recognition or enforcement action should be initiated. In particular, there may be no legal interest in filing a lawsuit for a judgment that is requested to be enforced. Therefore, the legal interest should also be taken into consideration.
Turkey
Answer ... As stated in question 2.1, a final judgment of a foreign court in accordance with the law of the relevant foreign country is required. The party requesting enforcement must initiate an action for recognition and enforcement before the competent civil court of first instance under Article 51 of the International Private and Procedural Law, together with the documents specified in Article 53 of the International Private and Procedural Law.
The formal process for recognition and enforcement consists of the following steps.
Application: The request for recognition and enforcement must be made through a petition to the competent court in Türkiye. The court to which the application must be submitted is determined depending on the nature of the request. For example:
- requests for the collection of money receivables are filed with the enforcement courts; and
- requests in relation to family law matters such as divorce or custody are filed with the family courts.
The petition must indicate:
- the name, surname and address of the other party;
- if applicable, the other party’s legal representatives and attorneys;
- a summary of the relevant judgment; and
- where enforcement of part of the judgment is requested, the relevant part.
Documents: The petition must be accompanied by:
- duly Turkish translations (certified by a notary public, a Turkish consulate or a certified translator) of the foreign judgment and other relevant documents; and
- a letter or document showing that the judgment has become final and duly certified by the relevant authorities of the foreign country.
As observed both in the practice of the Court of Cassation and in the doctrine, the foreign court judgment must be approved by the Turkish consulate or apostilled.
Examination: The court will examine the application and assess ex officio whether the foreign judgment complies with Turkish law and fulfils the conditions for enforcement. For example, if the judgment contains a provision that is contrary to Turkish public order or repeats a judgment given in Türkiye, the request for recognition and enforcement may be rejected.
Hearing: The court may hold a hearing if it considers the application appropriate. The parties may make a defence or state relevant issues at the hearing before the court.
Judgment: The court will evaluate the application and then either order recognition and enforcement or reject the request. If the judgment becomes final (note that the judgments of the civil courts of first instance are subject to appeal), the foreign judgment will become enforceable in Türkiye.
Turkey
Answer ... The petition must be accompanied by:
- duly Turkish translations (certified by a notary public, a Turkish consulate or a certified translator) of the foreign judgment and other relevant documents; and
- a letter or document showing that the judgment has become final and duly certified by the relevant authorities of the foreign country.
As observed both in the practice of the Court of Cassation and in the doctrine, the foreign court judgment must be approved by the Turkish consulate or apostilled.
Turkey
Answer ... Fixed fees must be paid for recognition. The amount is TRY 595 for 2023. In terms of an enforcement action, a proportional judicial fee must be paid according to the value of the case. This proportional fee is calculated as 6.831% of the value of the subject matter of the case.
The nature of the enforcement action has no effect on the fees that are payable. This is because the provisions in the Law on Fees (492/1964) are clear. However, despite these explicit provisions, the practices of the chambers of the Court of Cassation regarding fees for the filing of enforcement actions nonetheless diverge. In some decisions, the Court of Cassation has emphasised that imposing a fixed fee in enforcement lawsuits would be contrary to the purpose of the Law on Fees, despite the wording in Article 4 and based on the expression in Tariff (1). On the other hand, in enforcement proceedings, the Turkish courts cannot review the content of a foreign judgment under the prohibition of substantive examination, so enforcement actions should thus be subject to a fixed fee, which differs from the examination that is conducted by a Turkish court within the scope of a debt action, where a proportional fee should be imposed.
Turkey
Answer ... Pursuant to Article 48 of the International Private and Procedural Law, in recognition and enforcement proceedings, if the applicant is a foreign natural or legal person and has no domicile in Türkiye, it must provide a security deposit. The obligation to provide security is tied to the foreign status of the applicant and the amount of the security will be determined by the court According to Article 48(2) of the International Private and Procedural Law, if reciprocity exists between two jurisdictions, it is accepted that the foreign applicant will be exempt from the security requirement.
As a basis for the application of reciprocity, the following will suffice:
- a bilateral agreement between countries;
- domestic legislative regulations; or
- the implementation of effective reciprocity.
The essential point is to have established the functioning of reciprocity in some way. Türkiye is a party to many bilateral agreements that contain exemptions from the security requirement. Türkiye is also a signatory to the Hague Convention on Civil Procedure, which provides for exemptions from the security requirement. Furthermore, Article 9 of the European Convention on Establishment, to which Türkiye is a party, states that no security or deposit may be required in the other contracting state for nationals of that contracting state on the grounds that they are foreigners or have no domicile in the other contracting state.
Turkey
Answer ... Although it is not possible to suggest a definite timeframe, according to practice, the determination of this period is influenced by a number of factors, such as:
- the residence of the parties;
- the workload of the courts at the relevant place;
- the time required for service of process on the parties; and
- the representation of the parties by an attorney in Türkiye.
In practice, recognition and enforcement cases are concluded:
- within three to five months for parties with a known address in Türkiye; and
- within six to 10 months where one of the parties is located abroad and is not represented by an attorney.
Turkey
Answer ... Yes, the applicant in a recognition and enforcement case may request injunctive relief during the proceedings. Interim injunctions are temporary judgments granted for the purpose of protecting the rights of the party applying to the court. As there is no specific provision in the International Private and Procedural Law on this issue, the request for an interim injunction should be made in accordance with the general provisions of the Civil Procedure Law (6100/ 2011) (Article 389). Furthermore, in order to protect the rights of the other party, according to Article 392(1) of the Civil Procedure Law, the party requesting an interim injunction must provide security against possible damages to be incurred by the other party and third parties in the event that the party requesting the injunction proves to be wrong.
The party seeking injunctive relief must demonstrate that:
- it would suffer serious adverse effects without such relief; and
- this disadvantage would be irreversible in the future.
Additionally, the requested injunctive relief will be considered in accordance with fairness and whether there is a clearly acceptable reason for the application.