A power of attorney or deed arriving from Türkiye sometimes bears the signature of a judge instead of a notary. That does not make the document unusual: it is the consequence of the disqualification rule in the Notaries Law. This page sets out the rule and explains why the signature changes.
Six cases, four capacities
Article 76 of Notaries Law No. 1512 applies disqualification not only to the notary but also to witnesses, interpreters and experts. The cases listed are: the person is themselves an interested party, or an interested party acts as their representative; one of the interested parties is their spouse, even where the marriage no longer subsists; there is a relationship of blood, affinity or adoption of the stated degrees between them and an interested party; one of the interested parties is the notary’s clerk or employee; an interested party acts as the representative of a person with whom one of those relationships exists; the act involves a disposition in favour of the person themselves or of a person with whom one of those relationships exists. Item numbers are preserved in translation.
How the degrees of relationship are written
The third item describes the relationship by degree: a relationship in the ascending or descending line, even by affinity; a collateral relationship to the third degree by blood and to the second degree by affinity, those degrees included. The Turkish terms for ascendants, descendants, collateral relationship and affinity are terms of art; they are given explicit English equivalents, and the degrees together with the words “those degrees included” are not omitted, because they set the scope.
Why the signature changes
Article 77 provides that an act the notary may not perform is performed, where there is no other notary in that locality, by the judge of the court of first instance and, where no such court exists there, by the civil justice of the peace. Documents from small localities may therefore bear a court heading and a judge’s signature. The name of the authority is kept in its Turkish form and placed in brackets where an English description is given; the document is not a judgment but a notarial act, and that distinction appears in its heading.
Consequence for witnesses and interpreters
Because disqualification extends to witnesses and interpreters, one does not expect two members of the same family to appear in an act, one as a party and the other as a witness. The record states the identity of the witnesses and the interpreter; that information is rendered in full, since the assessment of disqualification rests on it. The interpreter’s role during the act and the written translation of the document are two separate tasks, dealt with in separate pages on this site.
Reading the document
For the translator this rule is not a decision but a matter of reading: the lines on the authority, the signature and the capacities are rendered as they stand. Whether an act complies with the disqualification rule is a legal assessment and is not added to the translated text. Judicial and legal documents are at no stage placed in a free machine translation or artificial intelligence service. Acte Tercüme translates Turkish notarial acts and documents relating to acts performed by a judge into English.