Recognition of a foreign divorce in Turkey

• Decisions of foreign judicial or administrative authorities on divorce, on the nullity or annulment of a marriage, or on whether a marriage exists, are entered in the civil registry if the conditions are met.
• The first condition concerns the application: the parties apply together, in person or through representatives. If one party has died or is a foreign national, the other party who is a Turkish citizen, or their representative, may apply alone.
• The second condition concerns the decision: it must have been given by an authority competent in the matter under the law of the state where it was given, and must have become final in due form.
• The third condition is that the decision must not be manifestly contrary to Turkish public policy.
• Registration is carried out by Turkish missions in the country where the decision was given, and inside Turkey by the civil registry offices designated by the Ministry.
• Where registration is refused because these conditions are not met, recognition in Turkey proceeds under the Act on Private International Law and Procedure — that is, through the courts.
• The procedures for applying the article are set by ministerial regulation; confirm the current document list with the civil registry office where you will apply.

This page is compiled from the text of the law and is not legal advice. Practice on the certification chain and translation of the decision can vary between offices; obtain the current document list before applying.

The first common problem is finality: the law requires the decision to have become final in due form under the law of the state where it was given, so an annotation or document proving that must accompany the text. The second is the spelling of names. In a divorce decision the parties' names are usually written in Cyrillic, while the Turkish registry works from the Latin spelling in the passport. The translation has to reconcile the two so the authority can match the decision to the right person; where a surname changed on marriage, the marriage certificate belongs in the same file. The third is the translation of provisions on custody, maintenance and division of property: if these are rendered incompletely or with interpretation, the file comes back, because the registering authority assesses the scope of the decision from the text. Court name, case number, decision date and the seal and signature annotations are carried over exactly; abbreviations are reproduced as they stand rather than expanded.