A claim form issued in London, Paris or New York has to reach a defendant in İstanbul or Ankara before the case can go on. Under the 1965 Hague Service Convention the route runs through Türkiye’s Central Authority, and one detail decides whether service can be completed against the addressee’s will: whether the documents are in Turkish or come with a Turkish translation. This page sets out that rule and where it is written down.
The Central Authority in Ankara
The Convention entered into force for Türkiye on 28 April 1972. Requests go to the Directorate General for Foreign Relations and EU Affairs of the Ministry of Justice (DİABGM), Ankara, which HCCH lists as Türkiye’s Central Authority. According to Türkiye’s HCCH Practical Information page, no fee is charged for service (Article 12) and requests are executed in three months. The same page gives Turkish and English as the languages of the staff.
Two methods under Article 5
Article 5(1) lets the Central Authority serve a document by a method prescribed by its internal law, or by a particular method the applicant asks for. Article 5(2) adds a softer route: the document may always be served by delivery to an addressee who accepts it voluntarily. In Türkiye the language of the documents decides which of the two routes is open.
Turkish text: service under domestic law
Türkiye’s Practical Information page explains that where the documents are prepared in Turkish, or a Turkish translation is attached to the originals, the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office serves them through the post offices under Turkish domestic law. In that case the documents may be served even against the addressee’s will, and the page notes that this is why the method is generally requested.
No translation: the addressee decides
Documents sent without a translation are served under Article 5(2), and the addressee may refuse them because they are not translated. The Ministry of Justice circular on international service in civil matters is explicit: where there is no Turkish translation, service takes place only if the addressee specifically and expressly accepts it, and documents without a Turkish translation are not served if the addressee does not consent (Circular 63/3, para. 49). A refusal means a fresh request, this time with the translation, and the three months begin again.
Where the rule is written
Several online summaries state that Türkiye made a declaration under Article 5(3). The depositary record shows no such declaration. That is not a gap: Article 21 lists the matters a State notifies to the depositary, and Article 5(3) is not among them, so many States publish their language requirement only in their Practical Information. For Türkiye the rule sits on that page and in Circular 63/3, and those are the two sources to cite when a request is prepared.
The request form and the summary
Article 7 requires the standard terms of the model request form to be written in French or English; the blanks are completed in the language of the State addressed, or in French or English. Under Article 5(4), the part of the form containing the summary of the document is served together with the document, so the addressee reads it first. The request and the document are supplied in duplicate (Article 3), and the Turkish translation follows the same count.
What Acte Tercüme does
Acte Tercüme translates claim forms, summonses, particulars of claim and exhibits into Turkish for service through the Central Authority, including the court stamps and handwritten entries on the originals, since those often carry the date by which the addressee has to respond. Whether and on whom to serve is decided by the lawyer running the case; the translation shows what the document says.