An icra emri is the order an enforcement office serves on a debtor to execute a court judgment, or a document the law treats like one. On the page it resembles a payment order: the same office issues it on a similar printed form and allows seven days. Its function is different, and the English term should show the difference in its first words.
An order tied to a judgment
Under İİK Article 24(1), when a judgment for the delivery of a movable is lodged with the enforcement office, the enforcement officer orders the debtor, by serving an enforcement order, to deliver it within seven days. The order names the parties, the court that gave the judgment, what was awarded and the date and number of the judgment, and warns that enforcement will continue unless a decision staying it is obtained (Article 24(2)). For a judgment on money or security it also states the kind and amount awarded (Article 32(1)), and where enforcement under a judgment is brought against a foreign State it warns that, subject to international treaties, enforcement may be levied on that State’s assets (Article 32(2)). The Regulation provides Form 2 for delivery and eviction and Form 5 for money and security (Article 19(b) and (e)).
Enforcement order, with its anchor
The suggested rendering is “enforcement order”, with “based on a judgment” added at the first mention. The addition is needed because “enforcement” alone does not say which stage is meant, and it keeps the document apart from the payment order, which stays “payment order” throughout the file. “Writ of execution” is one rendering to avoid: in some English-speaking systems it evokes a court’s authority addressed to an enforcement officer, while the Turkish icra emri is addressed to the debtor and warns the debtor. “Warrant” suggests an arrest or a search. A third association comes from European Union practice, where a “European Enforcement Order” is a certificate issued in the country of origin for a judgment on an uncontested claim. A reader with that instrument in mind may take the Turkish document for a certificate attached to a judgment, when it is a demand served by an enforcement office.
A stay, not a withdrawal
The core sentence of the enforcement order names the institution that takes the place of the objection in a payment order: icranın geri bırakılması. A literal rendering suggests either that the proceedings were dropped or that they were merely put off. “Stay of enforcement” is suggested. The phrase also avoids implying a right of objection: the enforcement order invites the debtor to obtain a decision from a court, it does not open an objection before the office. Settlements and acceptances made before a court, notarial deeds drawn up by the notary that contain an acknowledgment of a money debt, and certain guarantees follow the rules on enforcing judgments (Article 38); an enforcement order resting on such a document keeps the heading’s reference to a document having the force of a judgment.
The judgment behind the order
The date and number of the judgment are the line that ties the order to it. Where the judgment has been translated as well, the court’s name, the Docket (Merits) No. and the Decision No. are written the same way in both translations. A foreign judgment reaches this stage only after a Turkish court has granted exequatur, and a judgment granted exequatur is enforced like a Turkish one (MÖHUK Articles 50(1) and 57(1)); the enforcement order then identifies the foreign judgment together with the exequatur decision.