Turkish Interpreting

Where an interpreter is needed

Interpreting is spoken, and most appointments where a person who does not speak Turkish has to understand and sign something call for consecutive interpreting: the speaker pauses and the interpreter renders what was said. It roughly doubles the time a conversation takes, which is a planning fact rather than a drawback. The same settings come up again and again:

• Notary appointments. A Turkish notary will generally require an interpreter when a person who does not speak Turkish signs an instrument such as a power of attorney (vekâletname), a company formation document or a property undertaking. The purpose is evidential: the notary needs a record that the signatory was told, in a language they understand, what the document said.
• The title deed office (tapu müdürlüğü). When a buyer or seller who does not speak Turkish signs a property transfer, the office asks for a sworn interpreter to render the deed and the officer's explanations at the counter.
• Marriage offices (evlendirme memurluğu). Where one partner does not speak Turkish, the municipal marriage office asks for a sworn interpreter at the ceremony. Ask the office what it needs when you apply.
• Meetings. Negotiations, due diligence and board meetings, site visits, HR conversations, and a foreign client's meetings with a Turkish lawyer or accountant, on site in Istanbul or by video.

Courts are different. For a hearing, the court appoints its own interpreter; what can be arranged around a case is interpreting for your meetings with your lawyer and the translation of the documents. Simultaneous interpreting, delivered from a booth or with portable equipment while the speaker continues, suits conferences and long presentations, and normally needs two interpreters per language who alternate. Booking simultaneous equipment for a four-person contract meeting wastes money; scheduling a full-day conference for consecutive interpreting quietly doubles the agenda.

What the office checks on the day

A notary, the title deed office or a marriage office does not take an interpreter on trust. It checks the interpreter's identity and registration as a sworn interpreter, so the interpreter arrives with an identity document and proof of that registration. A bilingual friend, a relative or a colleague is not the same thing, however good their Turkish, and finding that out at the counter can cost you the appointment. The office also checks you: bring the passport or identity document the instrument was drafted from, because the names in the deed or power of attorney follow it letter by letter. An office may ask for the interpreter's details in advance; tell us which office it is and we check what it wants.

How to prepare an interpreter

The difference between adequate and good interpreting is usually made before anyone speaks. For an official appointment, send the draft instrument in advance, whether a power of attorney, a sale deed or the marriage office's paperwork. An interpreter who has read it beforehand can render defined terms consistently instead of improvising them at the desk. Send every party's name as it appears in the passport, and for property the block and parcel numbers (ada and parsel) and the address as the title deed shows them.

For meetings, agendas, participant lists, slide decks, prior correspondence, product names, technical vocabulary and the acronyms your organisation uses are all worth sending ahead. Interpreters are not subject-matter specialists in your business by default, and reading in advance turns a generic rendering into a precise one. Interpreters work to professional confidentiality, and material shared for preparation is used for that purpose only. If a further party will attend who speaks another language, say so: that may mean a second interpreter.

Remote sessions and practical limits

Remote interpreting by video is workable and often sensible for meetings, but audio quality becomes the limiting factor: a poor microphone degrades accuracy far more than it degrades ordinary conversation, because the interpreter has no context to guess from. For an important session, a headset for each speaker and a short test call beforehand are small investments. For an appointment at a notary, the title deed office or a marriage office, plan for the interpreter to attend in person, and confirm with the office if you were hoping otherwise.

Interpreting is fatiguing in a way that surprises people who have not booked it before, which is why long assignments are staffed in pairs and breaks are scheduled rather than optional. Where a meeting will produce documents, plan the written work separately: interpreting the discussion of a contract does not produce a translated contract, and the two are commissioned separately.

See Turkish Notary Translation and Legal Translation in Turkey. Related reading: translating a power of attorney in Turkey and translators in property registration. For individual procedures see Sworn Translation for Foreigners in Turkey, and for companies Corporate Translation Services.