Cross-Border Maintenance Claims and Türkiye

When a person entitled to maintenance lives in one country and the person who owes it lives in another, the international maintenance conventions apply. For Türkiye, the Ministry of Justice's General Directorate of Foreign Relations and EU Affairs acts as the central authority for claiming, litigating and collecting maintenance.

How applications travel

The Ministry's maintenance office forwards applications made in Türkiye to foreign central authorities and accepts applications made from abroad. Applications and correspondence go through the central authorities designated by the states party to the conventions. The key condition for applying the conventions is that the creditor and the debtor live in different countries, with some exceptions, and the Ministry notes that reciprocity between countries is also taken into account.

A creditor claiming maintenance from a debtor who lives in Türkiye applies to the central authority of the country where the creditor lives. Within Türkiye, the Ministry works through the chief public prosecutors' offices, which, among other tasks, file and pursue the case for enforcement of the foreign judgment on which the maintenance is based.

Enforcing a foreign maintenance order

A final foreign judgment can be enforced in Türkiye only after a competent Turkish court has granted enforcement. Under the Turkish private international law statute, the petition is accompanied by the original of the judgment duly certified by the authorities of that country, or a copy certified by the court that gave it, with a certified translation, and by a certified document showing that the judgment is final, also with a certified translation. Enforcement also requires reciprocity: an agreement with the state concerned, or a law or practice there that allows Turkish judgments to be enforced.

The texts we quote do not mention an apostille. We translate maintenance orders and supporting documents into Turkish in Ankara through translators sworn before a Turkish notary. The court decides on enforcement.