An application against Türkiye often rests on a file written entirely in Turkish: domestic judgments, appeal decisions and the petitions behind them. A lawyer outside Türkiye who takes on such a case first needs to know whether all of it must be put into English or French before the European Court of Human Rights will look at it. The Rules of Court answer by stage, and the answer changes once the Government has been given notice. According to the Court’s country profile, 22,566 applications against Türkiye were pending on 1 July 2026.
English and French, with room at the start
Rule 34 § 1 makes English and French the official languages of the Court. For individual applications, Rule 34 § 2 adds that, for as long as no Contracting Party has been given notice of the application, communications and written submissions by applicants or their representatives that are not in English or French are in one of the official languages of the Contracting Parties. Turkish is one of them, as are German, Dutch and Italian. The Court’s Application Notes (2026/1) say the same and add that, in the initial stage, the Court’s own letters may also come in that language.
Turkish annexes need no translation
Rule 47 § 3.1 lists what accompanies the application form, including copies of documents relating to the decisions or measures complained of and documents showing that domestic remedies were exhausted. It does not ask for those copies to be translated. The Rules call for decisions to be translated in one place, Rule 46 (g), which governs inter-State applications. When a Contracting Party is informed or given notice, Rule 34 § 2 has the application and its accompanying documents communicated to it in the language in which they were lodged.
Translation for counsel, not for the Court
That leaves a practical need the Rules do not address. The Court does not ask for English versions of the Turkish judgments when the application is lodged, but counsel who does not read Turkish has to know exactly what the domestic courts decided, and why, before drafting the complaints. A working translation for counsel’s own use is a different job from a certified translation for filing, and it can be limited to the reasoning and the passages on which the complaints will rest.
After notice: English or French
Once notice of the application has been given to a Contracting Party, and in respect of any hearing, all communications and written submissions by the applicant or representative are in one of the Court’s official languages, unless the President of the Chamber grants leave for continued use of the official language of a Contracting Party (Rule 34 § 3 (a)). Where leave is granted, the Registrar arranges for translation and interpretation into English or French (Rule 34 § 3 (b)). Exceptionally, the President may make leave conditional on the applicant bearing all or part of the costs of those arrangements (Rule 34 § 3 (c)).
The Government’s documents
The President of the Chamber may direct the respondent Contracting Party to provide an English or French translation of all or some of its annexes or other documents, or a summary of them (Rule 34 § 4 (c)). Witnesses and experts may use their own language, with the Registrar making the arrangements (Rule 34 § 6). For counsel, annexes filed by the Government are a second body of Turkish material that may need reading alongside the domestic judgments.
Time limit and translation schedule
The Application Notes state a four-month period for lodging an application; the earlier six-month period no longer applies. Because the application can be lodged in Turkish, translation does not have to fit inside that period. It becomes part of the timetable after notice, when the reply to the Government’s observations has to be written in English or French, or a Turkish draft put into one of them.
What the translator prepares for Strasbourg
Acte Tercüme translates Turkish judgments and decisions into English or French for counsel preparing an application, and Turkish drafts of observations into English or French after notice. Framing the complaints and judging admissibility is counsel’s work; the translation carries the text across without changing what it argues.