A divorce judgment taken by the judicial authorities of foreign countries, are not automatically recognized in Turkey. Recognition and enforcement cases should be filed for these rules and orders to be valid in Turkey.
Recognition is to approve the process of divorce judgement in Turkey which is given by foreign judicial authorities when a Turkish citizen gets married and divorced in another country with a foreign or local person.
Enforcement is a matter of enforcement of the court orders about divorce. For example to provide the payment of child support in the divorce decision of the foreign court in question or to provide the payment of alimonies and compensations in Turkey if there is an alimony or compensation order in the foreign court’s judgement.
Turkish citizens will continue to appear married in Turkey if they don’t file those proceedings in question. This can create serious grievances for them. One of the most serious effects of this suits to not to be filed are about new marriages or heritage statuses.
Judgements and orders that may be subject to enforcement and recognition are only those made by the courts. Therefore, it will not be possible for the decisions taken by foreign administrative authorities to be subject to recognition or enforcement procedures.
As long as the parties hire a lawyer in Turkey they won’t have to file and chase these cases personally so they won’t have to be in Turkey to run the suitcases. Courts sending notices abroad will extend the deadlines so it is always better to hire a lawyer in Turkey to run the suitcase and to conclude the case as soon as possible.
There is no time limit for filing recognition and enforcement cases. Parties can file these cases whenever they want. However we recommend you to not delay to file these cases.
The documents required to open the recognition and enforcement cases are the divorce judgement issued by the foreign court, the letter stating that the judgement has been finalized, an apostille annotation from the Turkish Embassy or Turkish Consulate and the translation of the decision.
Antalya Divorce Lawyer and Antalya Divorce Attorney Baris Erkan Celebi and his Antalya Law Firm offer their clients legal representation in recognition and enforcement for foreign divorce judgments in Turkish Divorce Law.
