Foreign Associations in Türkiye: Permission and Documents

Associations established abroad may operate or cooperate in Türkiye, open a representative office or branch, found an association or umbrella body, or join existing ones, with the permission of the Ministry of the Interior after the opinion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been obtained. The Associations Law sets this rule, and the Associations Regulation sets out the procedure, which the Ministry's Directorate General for Relations with Civil Society runs.

The application

Foreign associations apply to the Ministry with the application form for foreign legal entities wishing to operate in Türkiye and its annexes; the Directorate General records the form in the electronic system. Applications to open a representative office or branch must also include the association's main statute containing the information in the model statute annexed to the regulation, and applications to operate or cooperate must include the statute matching the other model. The Ministry examines the form and annexes and has any gaps completed. Documents submitted for earlier permissions that are still valid are not requested again.

The same rules apply to non-profit organisations established abroad that are neither associations nor foundations. Foreign foundations have their own page on this site.

Decisions and founders

The civil society directorate's İzmir page lists, for applications by foreign associations, a copy of the decision taken by the competent body of the organisation abroad for the planned activity, naming the authorised persons, together with its Turkish translation. Where legal entities are among the founders of a branch, their name, seat and incorporation documents are submitted with a copy of their bodies' decision naming the authorised individual. The page dates from before the current version of the regulation, so check the current list with the Directorate General.

The texts we quote do not set an apostille rule for these documents; ask the Directorate General which certification it expects. We translate foreign statutes, board decisions and incorporation documents into Turkish in Ankara through translators sworn before a Turkish notary. The Ministry of the Interior decides on permission.