The first practical question foreign counsel asks when opening a Turkish enforcement case is which city and which court. The statute answers in a single article of two paragraphs, and the closing part of it names three cities. This page deals with that article at the level of the case header.
Court of first instance
Article 51(1) of Law No. 5718 is one sentence: the court with jurisdiction over enforcement decisions is the court of first instance. In family matters the case may be heard by a family court, which sits at the same level, and the header then carries that name. In translation the Turkish name of the court is kept and placed in brackets when an English description is offered; the chamber number inside the name is not dropped.
Domicile and place of residence
Article 51(2) ties venue to the person: enforcement may be sought from the court of the place of domicile in Türkiye of the person against whom enforcement is requested or, failing that, of the place where that person resides. The two are separate concepts in Turkish law. Rendering both as “residence” removes the basis of venue relied on in the petition, so two distinct expressions are used and kept throughout the document. Supporting address documents are rendered as they stand.
The three-city rule
The same paragraph closes with a fallback: where there is no domicile or place of residence in Türkiye, enforcement may be sought from one of the courts of Ankara, Istanbul or Izmir. The statute names the three cities and the choice belongs to the applicant. Cases against a party living outside Türkiye rest on this sentence, and the petition cites it expressly; that citation is preserved. City names are not translated.
Three lines on the first page
On the first page of an enforcement petition three lines carry the weight: the court addressed, the identity and addresses of the parties, and the identification of the judgment to be enforced. All three are rendered literally: the court name is not abbreviated, addresses are not corrected, and the foreign court’s own designation is kept. Counsel’s name, bar and registration number are part of the document as well.
What follows the venue decision
Once the court is identified, the next technical question in the file is how the other party will be served, and the language and channel of that service are dealt with elsewhere on this site. The foreign address filed with the petition directly affects the service route, so it is rendered in full and in its own format, with the postal code and country name intact. No advice on which city should be chosen appears in the translation. Acte Tercüme translates enforcement and recognition petitions, their annexes and the resulting court decisions into English.