Enforcing Foreign Court Judgments in Turkey: Tenfiz Guide

Enforcing foreign court judgments in Turkey is a court case in its own right, not a formality. A judgment from an English, German, French or American court is a piece of paper here until a Turkish court says otherwise. It does not freeze a bank account, it does not put a lien on an Istanbul flat, and a Turkish bailiff will not act on it. The procedure that changes that is called tenfiz — enforcement — and it is set out in Articles 50 to 59 of the Turkish Code on Private International Law and Procedure (MÖHUK, Law No. 5718).

The good news is that the Turkish court will not retry your case. It does not look at whether the foreign judge was right. It looks at a short, closed list of conditions, and if your file satisfies them, it converts the foreign judgment into a Turkish enforcement title. The bad news is that the list is applied strictly, and a petition can fail without anyone looking at the merits — because of a missing finality certificate, an uncertified translation or a problem with how the defendant was summoned abroad.

Recognition and enforcement are not the same thing

People use the two words interchangeably and then file the wrong case. They are separate remedies with separate consequences.

When recognition is enough

Recognition under Article 58 gives the foreign judgment legal effect in Türkiye — it becomes res judicata and can be relied on as proof — but it does not authorise anyone to seize anything. This is the right remedy for status judgments: a divorce decree that has to appear on the Turkish civil registry, an order establishing parentage, a declaration of legal capacity. If your judgment does not require the other side to pay or hand over anything, recognition is what you need. Recognition requires the enforcement conditions except reciprocity (Article 58(1)), and the same procedure applies where a foreign judgment is to be the basis of an administrative act in Türkiye (Article 58(3)). The same logic governs the recognition of foreign divorce decrees in Türkiye.

When you need enforcement

Enforcement under Article 50 creates a title you can actually execute: attach bank accounts, register a lien over Turkish real estate, garnish receivables owed to the debtor by Turkish counterparties. Any judgment that orders payment, restitution, delivery of shares or performance of an obligation needs tenfiz. A recognition judgment will not get a bailiff to move.

The five conditions the court actually checks

Finality comes from Article 50; Article 54 sets out the four further conditions; Articles 53 and 55 add the documents and the procedure. Any single failure defeats the petition. The court checks the conditions itself, except two that depend on an objection by the respondent: exorbitant jurisdiction under Article 54(b) and defective summons under Article 54(ç).

1. The judgment must be final

Final means final under the law of the country that issued it (Article 50(1)). You prove this with a document showing that the judgment is final, duly authenticated by the authorities of that country (Article 53(1)(b)) — in practice apostilled under the Hague Convention, or legalised through the Turkish consulate if the issuing state is not a party to it. A judgment given in the defendant's absence can be enforced, but if the defendant objects that it was not duly summoned under the law of the issuing state, the petition fails (Article 54(ç)) — so keep the proof of service.

2. Reciprocity

Article 54(a) requires reciprocity with the issuing state: a treaty based on reciprocity, a provision of that state's own law allowing Turkish judgments to be enforced, or an actual practice (fiilî uygulama) of its courts enforcing them. Which of these exists differs from state to state: some states have a treaty with Türkiye, others do not, and where there is no treaty the petitioner has to prove the foreign law or the foreign courts' practice with evidence. Our separate guides deal with enforcing an English judgment in Türkiye and enforcing a German judgment in Türkiye, where the reciprocity question is answered very differently.

3. The dispute must not fall under exclusive Turkish jurisdiction

Under Article 54(b), the judgment must not concern a subject within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Turkish courts. The most common trap is immovable property: cases on rights in rem over land and buildings located in Türkiye are reserved to the court where the property is located (Code of Civil Procedure, Article 12(1)), which is why judgments on such rights over Turkish real estate fail at this stage. Article 54(b) has a second limb, applied only if the defendant objects: the judgment must not come from a court that took jurisdiction although it had no real connection with the subject matter or the parties.

4. Public order

The judgment must not be manifestly contrary to Turkish public order (kamu düzeni) (Article 54(c)). The statute uses the word "manifestly" (açıkça): the question is not whether a Turkish judge would have decided the same way; it is whether enforcing the result would be manifestly incompatible with Turkish public order.

5. The defendant must have been properly served and heard

Article 54(ç) protects the right of defence. Enforcement is refused where, under the law of the issuing state, the person against whom enforcement is sought was not duly summoned to the foreign court, was not represented there, or had judgment given in its absence contrary to that law — provided that person objects on that ground before the Turkish court. If the objection is made out, the defect cannot be cured in Türkiye.

What the file has to contain

Article 53 is short and unforgiving. The petition must be accompanied by:

• the foreign judgment, in original or in a copy certified by the issuing court;
• a certificate confirming the judgment is final;
• an apostille on both, or consular legalisation where the Hague Apostille Convention does not apply between Türkiye and the issuing state;
• a certified Turkish translation of the judgment and of the finality document;
• a power of attorney for your Turkish lawyer, itself apostilled if executed abroad.

Missing or defective documents cause delay: a finality document that does not clearly show the judgment is final, or a translation that is not certified, will have to be replaced.

Where it is heard and how the procedure runs

The competent court is the court of first instance (asliye mahkemesi) (Article 51(1)). Venue follows the Turkish domicile of the person against whom enforcement is sought; if there is none, the place of residence; and failing both, the courts of Ankara, İstanbul or İzmir (Article 51(2)). This last rule matters more than it sounds — it is what lets a creditor proceed against a debtor who has assets in Türkiye but no address here.

MÖHUK sets no time limit for the decision. The petition is served on the respondent with a hearing date and decided under the simple procedure (Article 55(1)); the decision can be appealed under the general rules, and an appeal (temyiz) suspends execution (Article 57(2)). Court fees follow Article 4 of the Fees Law (Law No. 492): the fee is based on the value, type and nature of what the foreign judgment awards. Where the proportional decision fee applies (68.31 per mille), one quarter is paid in advance (Article 28(a)), so a large claim carries a meaningful filing cost.

After the judgment: what execution actually looks like

A tenfiz judgment is not itself the recovery. Once it can be executed, it is enforced like a Turkish judgment (Article 57(1)): it becomes the title you take to an enforcement office (icra dairesi) and open execution proceedings under the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law (Law No. 2004) — the same machinery a domestic creditor uses. That is the stage at which accounts are attached and liens are registered. Foreign creditors routinely underestimate this: winning tenfiz puts you at the starting line of collection, not past it, and the debtor can raise objections there that have nothing to do with the foreign judgment — for example, within seven days of the execution order, that the debt has been paid, deferred or has become time-barred (Article 33 of Law No. 2004).

A tenfiz petition is decided on documents — the finality document, the authentication, the proof of service — and those documents have to be obtained abroad, often years earlier, while the foreign case is still open.

When we tell people not to bother

Not every foreign judgment is worth enforcing here, and we would rather say so at the start than after the fees are spent.

If the debtor has no identifiable assets in Türkiye, a tenfiz judgment is an expensive certificate. Enforcement is not an asset search. If the underlying dispute concerns rights in rem over Turkish immovable property, the exclusive-jurisdiction condition in Article 54(b) stands in the way, and the matter is better treated from the start as a Turkish litigation question, not an enforcement one. And if the defendant was never properly summoned abroad and objects under Article 54(ç), the defect cannot be repaired at this stage; the honest answer is that the judgment will not travel.

What to send us

Send the judgment and the finality certificate — those two documents answer most of the question on their own. Add anything you have on how the defendant was served, and tell us what the debtor owns in Türkiye and where. We will tell you whether the file satisfies Article 54, what is missing, and whether the assets justify the case, before you commit to it. If it does not work, we will say that too. Our recognition and enforcement practice handles these files for foreign creditors from first review through execution.

This guide is general information on Turkish law, not legal advice on your own matter. Rules and practice change; check the position before you act.