When a Turkish court judgment for money, delivery or eviction is put into execution, the debtor receives an enforcement order (icra emri), not a payment order. Both come from an enforcement office on similar printed forms, and to a reader abroad they look alike. Their functions differ: the payment order starts enforcement without a judgment and leaves room for an objection, while the enforcement order executes a judgment that already exists. Articles 24(2) and 32 of the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law (İİK) set out what the enforcement order contains.
Two forms, two kinds of judgment
Article 19 of the İİK Regulation provides two forms. Form 2 (Örnek 2) serves judgments ordering the delivery of movables or the eviction and delivery of immovable property; Form 5 serves proceedings where a judgment, or a document having the force of a judgment, orders payment of money or the provision of security. The form number is kept at the top of the translation, since it tells the reader which kind of judgment is being executed.
Parties and the identity of the judgment
Article 24(2) requires the names, surnames and domiciles of the creditor, the debtor and any representatives, the name of the court that gave the judgment, what was awarded, and the date and number of the judgment. These lines tie the order to the judgment. When the two documents are translated together, names, company titles, the English name of the court and the Docket (Merits) No. and Decision No. are rendered identically in both, so that the reader can match them at a glance.
What was awarded
For a delivery judgment, the item awarded is described as the judgment describes it; for money or security, Article 32(1) adds its kind and amount. Principal, interest and costs keep their figures and their currency. The translation does not complete the enforcement order from the operative part of the judgment: if the two differ, the difference is for counsel to assess, and a translator’s note can point it out without resolving it.
A stay, not an objection
The central sentence warns that enforcement will continue unless a decision staying enforcement is obtained from the enforcement court or, through istinaf, temyiz or reopening of proceedings (iadei muhakeme), from the court concerned (Articles 24(2) and 32(1)). This is not the objection procedure used in enforcement without a judgment (Articles 60 and 62). The English terms carry the distinction: “enforcement order (based on a judgment)” for icra emri, “payment order” for ödeme emri, and “stay of enforcement” for icranın geri bırakılması. The older statutory term iadei muhakeme is today’s yargılamanın iadesi and is rendered as “reopening of proceedings”.
Seven days, assets and a foreign State
A money or security order also requires payment, or security, within seven days, and a declaration of assets within the same period under Article 74, with coercive detention for failing to declare and imprisonment as a punishment for failing to declare or declaring falsely (Article 32(1)). Article 32(2), added by Law No. 6352, adds a line that matters in cross-border files: where enforcement is brought against a foreign State under a judgment, the order warns that, subject to international treaties, enforcement may be levied on assets belonging to that State. The treaty proviso is part of the warning and is never dropped.
Documents treated as judgments, and foreign judgments
Form 5 also serves documents that Article 38 treats like judgments: settlements and acceptances made before a court, notarial deeds drawn up by the notary that contain an acknowledgment of a money debt, guarantees given in istinaf and temyiz proceedings, and guarantees given at the enforcement office. A heading that refers to such a document keeps the reference. A foreign judgment reaches this stage by another road: a Turkish court first grants exequatur, the decision is written under the foreign judgment, and the judgment is then enforced like a Turkish one (MÖHUK Articles 50(1), 56 and 57(1)); its translation is prepared for the exequatur action (Article 53(1)). Acte Tercüme translates Turkish enforcement orders into English together with the judgment they execute.