A foreign owner who gives a power of attorney to sell a flat in Antalya, promises to sell land to a buyer, or signs a marriage contract with a Turkish spouse is likely to hold a deed drawn up by a Turkish notary (düzenleme şeklinde işlem). Here the notary does more than witness a signature: the notary writes down what the party declares, has it read and signed, and keeps the original. For a lawyer abroad, each part of the deed answers one question: who acted, what was declared, and how the notary knew the person present.
A record with five elements
Article 84 of the Notaries Law (Law No. 1512) requires a notary to draw up a legal transaction as a record. The record carries five elements: the name of the notary and of the notary’s office; the place and date, in figures and in words; the identity and address of the party and of any interpreter, witness or expert, with the party’s tax identification number; the party’s declaration of their true intent; and the signatures of those taking part, with the notary’s signature and seal. The original stays at the notary’s office and the party receives a copy, so the paper that reaches a translator is, as a rule, a copy.
Transactions that take this form
Article 89 lists the transactions drawn up by the notary: contracts and powers of attorney that by their nature require a land registry transaction, wills, sales with retention of title, promises to sell immovable property, foundation deeds, marriage contracts, adoption and the recognition of a child, contracts partitioning an estate, and other acts that other laws place in this form. This is why a power of attorney for a Turkish title deed reads like a formal record rather than a letter with a stamped signature.
The parts in order
In practice the deed runs: office and notary; the journal number (yevmiye numarası) and date; a heading naming the form and the transaction; the party’s identity, usually with father’s name, place and date of birth, identity or tax number, address and nationality; any interpreter or witnesses; how identity was established; the declaration; the reading note; signatures and seal; a photograph where required; annexes. The journal number and heading come from practice rather than from Article 84, but they identify the deed and are copied exactly.
How the notary knew the party
The record states whether the notary knows the party and, if not, how the notary became satisfied of their identity (Article 85). If capacity is in doubt, a medical report settles it, and its date and number appear in the text (Regulation Article 91). Passport and report numbers are copied digit for digit.
A party who does not speak Turkish
The deed is written in Turkish. When a party does not know Turkish, a sworn interpreter is also present (Article 74) and is identified in the record. That interpreter belongs to the transaction itself; a later written translation renders the passage naming the interpreter and does not stand in for the interpretation.
What the translation keeps
Both forms of the date stay: the figures as figures, and the date in words written out again in words of the target language. The declaration is in the first person (“I have appointed ... as my attorney”), and the translation keeps the first person rather than switching to reported speech. The note that the party read the record and found that it matched their wishes before signing (Article 86) is rendered in full. Documents attached to the record form an inseparable part of it (Article 88), so a translation without them is the translation of an incomplete deed.
The heading and evidential weight
Under Article 82, a transaction drawn up by the notary is valid until proven forged, while a signature certification carries that force only for the signature and the date. The heading naming the form is how a reader abroad tells the two apart, so the translation does not reduce it to a vague word such as “notarised”.
When the deed is used abroad
For use abroad, the apostille on the notary’s signature and seal is issued by the highest civil administrator of any province or district, that is a governor or district governor (Article 199, as amended by Law No. 7533 of 21 November 2024). A sworn translation made in Türkiye is not automatically accepted abroad; some authorities require a translator from their own sworn list. Check with the receiving authority before the translation starts. Acte Tercüme translates Turkish notarial deeds into English and French with the heading, the journal number and the reading note in place.