Turkish Business Translation

What a company file usually contains

Business translation runs in two directions, and the documents differ. A foreign company forming a subsidiary or registering a branch in Turkey files its own corporate documents, in Turkish, with the trade registry office. The usual set is the parent's certificate of incorporation or registry extract, a certificate of good standing, its articles of association, the board resolution deciding to set up the Turkish company or branch and naming who will represent it, and powers of attorney (vekâletname) for the people acting locally. Because they were issued abroad, these are apostilled in the issuing country, or legalised through the consular route where that country is outside the Apostille Convention, before they are translated here.

The other direction is a Turkish company proving itself abroad: to a foreign partner, a bank opening an account, a tender committee or a foreign registry. The recurring documents are the Trade Registry Gazette (Türkiye Ticaret Sicili Gazetesi) issues recording formation and later changes, the signature circular (imza sirküleri) showing who may sign for the company, the activity certificate (faaliyet belgesi), the articles of association (esas sözleşme), the tax plate (vergi levhası), board resolutions and financial statements. Contracts, audit reports, tax correspondence and employment contracts follow once the company is running.

Which level of certification is asked for

The receiving office decides, so ask it, in writing if possible, before ordering. In a tender, the specification (şartname) states the form a translation must take, and bids are checked against it. Corporate documents filed with a Turkish registry generally need a translation by a sworn translator (yeminli tercüman) with notary certification (noter onayı). A notary certifies the sworn translator's signature and registration; responsibility for the accuracy of the rendering stays with the translator, and notary certification does not guarantee acceptance of a file.

Abroad, the range is wider. Some banks and partners accept a certified translation signed and stamped by the translator; others ask for a sworn translation, notary certification and an apostille, which the governorship (valilik) or district governorship (kaymakamlık) issues on notarized documents. Some destinations want the apostille on the original Turkish document, some on the notarized translation, some on both, and the receiving party says which. Countries outside the Apostille Convention ask for consular legalisation instead, through the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and their own embassy or consulate. We arrange the notary and apostille steps; we do not notarize or issue apostilles ourselves.

Much of the internal traffic simply needs to be accurate and readable, and paying for notary certification on a management report is money spent for no reason.

Names, titles and figures that must match

Registry officials and bank compliance teams compare documents against each other. The trade name (ticaret unvanı) is the commonest weak point: the same company appears as "Örnek Danışmanlık Limited Şirketi" in the Gazette, "Ornek Danismanlik Ltd. Sti." on an invoice and "Ornek Consulting LLC" in a contract, and a foreign reader cannot tell whether that is one entity or three. We keep the trade name exactly as registered and explain the legal form (anonim şirket, a joint stock company; limited şirket, a limited liability company) rather than inventing an English name, unless the company already uses an established English form, which we then follow every time.

The same discipline applies to the foreign parent: its name, with its comma and its "Inc." or "GmbH", has to read identically on the apostilled certificate, the board resolution, the power of attorney and the translation, and officers' names have to follow their passports. Officer titles matter too: a director who is "Chairman of the Board" (yönetim kurulu başkanı) in one translation and "President" in the next looks like two appointments. We keep a terminology record for each client, so names, titles and recurring contractual definitions read the same way even in documents translated months apart. Where the source documents themselves disagree, we flag it rather than harmonising it silently, because the mismatch sits in the originals and has to be fixed at source.

Financial material carries its own trap. Turkish writes 1.234,56 where English writes 1,234.56, 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.

What we need to start

• Every page of each document, including apostille or legalisation pages and reverse sides carrying stamps.
• The trade name exactly as registered, and any English form the company already uses.
• Earlier translations or a company glossary, so the new file matches them.
• The receiving office's written list, including whether it asks for notary certification and an apostille.
• For documents printed from e-Devlet, the complete page with its barcode, which the receiving party can verify online.

Much of this material is commercially sensitive: it is handled on a need-to-know basis, 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.

Related reading: company registration document translation and translating business contracts. See also Corporate Translation Services, Translating Turkish Documents for Use Abroad, Apostille Services in Turkey and Legal Translation in Turkey.