Turkish Business Translation

What foreign companies actually need translated

Setting up or operating a company in Turkey generates a steady stream of documents that have to exist in Turkish, and a second stream that has to exist in the parent company's language. Company formation typically requires the foreign parent's articles of association, a certificate of good standing or equivalent registry extract, board resolutions authorising the Turkish entity, and powers of attorney for the people acting locally. These generally need sworn translation and notary certification, and if they were issued abroad they usually need an apostille from the issuing country first.

Once a company is running, the traffic changes character: trade registry gazette entries, financial statements, audit reports, tax correspondence, employment contracts, supplier and distribution agreements, and board minutes. Some of this is formal and needs certification. Much of it simply needs to be accurate and readable, and paying for notarisation on an internal management report is money spent for no reason.

Terminology that has to stay stable

Corporate documents refer to themselves constantly. An entity name, a defined term, a job title or a product line that shifts between documents makes a set of filings look inconsistent to a registry official who is comparing them. We keep a terminology record for each client so that the company name, the legal form, officer titles and recurring contractual definitions are rendered the same way every time, including across documents translated months apart.

Financial material carries its own trap. Number formatting, decimal separators and thousands separators differ between conventions, and an unconsidered conversion in a financial statement is a serious error rather than a stylistic one. Figures are carried across exactly as they appear, with the source convention preserved.

Confidentiality

Much of this material is commercially sensitive and some of it is price-sensitive before announcement. Documents are handled on a need-to-know basis within the team working on them, and we are willing to sign a non-disclosure agreement before receiving anything.

We translate documents. We do not advise on Turkish company law, tax treatment or filing obligations, and where a question is really a legal or accounting question we will say so and suggest you put it to your advisers.

Related reading: setting up a business in Turkey, translating business contracts, official translation in business expansion and translations for tax documents. See also Legal Translation in Turkey.