When a civil case is brought in Türkiye against a company or a person abroad, the defendant’s first filing is the statement of defence (cevap dilekçesi). It is drafted and filed in Turkish, and the foreign client, its in-house lawyers or its counsel at home usually read it in English, as a draft before filing or as filed. Article 129(1) of the Code of Civil Procedure (HMK, Law No. 6100) lists its contents in items (a) to (ğ). The order follows the statement of claim closely; the differences are few, and each of them matters to a reader abroad.
Court, parties and whose identity number
Items (a) to (ç) cover the name of the court, the names and addresses of the claimant and the defendant, the Turkish identity number of the defendant, and the names and addresses of any legal representatives and of the claimant’s counsel. In the statement of claim the identity number on this line belongs to the claimant; here it belongs to the defendant. It is copied digit for digit, and a line left empty in Turkish stays empty in English.
An address in Türkiye for a defendant abroad
Item (b) contains a requirement that the statement of claim does not have: a defendant who is abroad gives an address in Türkiye to be used for the proceedings in the case. A client who finds a Turkish street address beside its own name in the English version may take it for an error. It is a statutory element, and a short translator’s note citing Article 129(1)(b) answers the question before it is asked; the address itself is rendered exactly as written.
Preliminary objections at the top
Preliminary objections, such as an objection to jurisdiction or an arbitration objection, usually open the defence under a heading of their own, before the answer on the merits. The position has a reason: once the statement of defence has been filed, preliminary objections can no longer be raised (Article 131). For a client reviewing the English draft, this heading is where the timing rule bites, so the translation keeps it separate, keeps its title and does not blend it into the discussion of the facts.
Numbered facts on both sides
Items (d) and (e) require clear summaries of all the facts on which the defence rests, under sequence numbers, and for each fact the evidence meant to prove it. A defence also answers the numbered facts of the statement of claim, often paragraph by paragraph. Two numbering systems therefore run through one document, and both survive translation unchanged: the defence’s own numbers and every reference to a paragraph of the claim. Where the claim and the defence are translated together, a person, a contract or a disputed event keeps one English name across both texts.
Legal grounds and relief sought
Item (f) names the legal grounds relied on, usually by statute and article, and item (g) states the relief sought clearly. The relief in a defence is often brief, but its scope is rendered exactly: a conditional or partial request stays conditional or partial, and requests are neither merged nor reordered. Abbreviations such as HMK or TBK are spelled out at their first mention, while article numbers stay as cited.
Signature and annexes
Item (ğ) is the signature of the defendant, a legal representative or counsel. Article 129(2) extends the rules on documents in Article 121 to the defence, so documents in hand are attached and documents held elsewhere are described precisely enough to be found. Each annex in the closing list is a separate document for translation purposes. A defence filed through UYAP bears a secure electronic signature, which has the same legal effect as a handwritten one (Electronic Signature Law, Article 5); the English version reproduces the electronic signature entry rather than a bracketed ink signature.
Time limits and a silent defendant
The defence is due within two weeks of service of the statement of claim, with one extension of up to a month possible in compelling cases (Article 127). A defendant who does not answer in time is deemed to have denied all the facts the claimant asserted (Article 128), so in Turkish procedure silence does not operate as an admission. If items (a), (b), (c), (ç) or (ğ) are missing, the court gives one week to remedy them, failing which the defence is deemed not to have been filed (Article 130). Periods stated in weeks stay in weeks in English. Acte Tercüme translates Turkish statements of defence into English for clients abroad, together with the statement of claim they answer.