Repatriating a Body from Arizona to Türkiye
Which documents Türkiye asks for when repatriating a body from Arizona, and how the Arizona Secretary of State certifies notarized or court documents.
To bring a body from Arizona to Türkiye, the Turkish regulation requires a body transport document (cenaze nakil belgesi) from the competent authority of the place the body comes from, stating that the transport is permitted and poses no health risk. For countries party to the 1937 or 1973 international agreements on transporting remains, it also requires a transit permit for remains from the competent authority of the place where the death occurred.
The Arizona Secretary of State
On the Arizona side, the Arizona Secretary of State (Business Services Division) issues an apostille or a certificate of authentication. It certifies the signature of an Arizona notary public on notarial documents and of an Arizona court clerk on court documents. The quoted Arizona text also mentions state document custodians, but the facts here do not tie a specific repatriation document to that category.
The order of steps matters. The document must first be notarized by an Arizona notary or issued as a certified recorded copy. Only then does it go to the Secretary of State. The office must receive the original notarized or certified recorded document. It does not accept a photocopy.
Requests can be sent by mail. Every mailed request must include return postage. The office does not issue electronic apostilles.
The Arizona page names both an apostille and a certificate of authentication. The quoted text does not say which of the two is issued for a document going to Türkiye. Confirm this with the Arizona Secretary of State, Business Services Division, when you send the request.
What the quoted texts leave open
The Turkish regulation defines the agreement countries by reference to the 1937 and 1973 agreements but does not list which countries are parties. Whether the United States counts as an agreement country, and therefore whether the transit permit route applies to a death in Arizona, is not settled by the quoted texts. Confirm it with the Ministry of Health, Directorate General of Border and Coastal Health.
The downloaded regulation text does not mention an apostille, a certificate of authentication or a Turkish translation for the transit permit or the body transport document. Ask the same Directorate General which of these it requires for papers coming from Arizona.
The Arizona facts also do not name the Arizona office that issues the body transport document or the transit permit itself. They only describe how the Secretary of State certifies notarized and court documents. The Turkish authority that receives the documents decides whether it accepts them.