The bankruptcy route is slower to start but carries a lever the attachment route lacks: once the commercial court finds the claim well founded, it orders the debtor to pay or deposit the debt within seven days, and a debtor who refuses is declared bankrupt at the first hearing. This guide explains when the lever is available, how it works step by step and when it is the wrong tool.
A Turkish trading partner has stopped paying. The invoices are undisputed, the reminders have gone unanswered, and the debtor is still in business: its warehouse is working, its staff are paid and its bank accounts are active. The ordinary tool, an enforcement pursuit by way of attachment (haciz yolu), would lead to the seizure and sale of assets, a process that can be long when the assets are scattered or encumbered. The Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law (İcra ve İflas Kanunu, İİK No. 2004) offers a second road against merchants, the ordinary bankruptcy pursuit (iflas yoluyla adi takip), which ends not in a sale of individual assets but in a choice put to the debtor by the commercial court: pay or deposit the debt within seven days, or be declared bankrupt. This guide explains the route step by step, following the text of the İİK as in force in September 2026.
1. Two Roads Against a Merchant, and the Right to Switch Once (İİK 43)
İİK 43 provides that the bankruptcy route may be used only against persons who are merchants under the Turkish Commercial Code or subject to the provisions on merchants, and against persons that special laws declare subject to bankruptcy although they are not merchants. The same article preserves the creditor’s choice: against these debtors the creditor may also proceed by way of attachment. A creditor who has chosen one road may, once, abandon it and start the other afresh without paying the fee again.
The rule matters for foreign creditors in three ways. First, the debtor’s status must be checked before the pursuit is filed: a trading company registered in the trade registry is a merchant; a private individual who bought goods for personal use is not. Second, the choice is strategic rather than technical: the attachment route aims at assets, the bankruptcy route aims at the debtor’s continued existence as a business. Third, the one-time switch gives room to correct course when the first choice turns out to be wrong, for example when a debtor that looked solvent proves to have no attachable assets, or when a debtor facing bankruptcy turns out to have enough assets to make attachment the faster road.
A merchant who closes the business does not escape the route immediately. Under İİK 44 a merchant who abandons trade must notify the trade registry within fifteen days and file a statement of assets and creditors, and the bankruptcy route remains available against that person for one year from the announcement.
2. The Payment Order and the Seven-Day Warning (İİK 155)
The pursuit begins, as in every non-judgment enforcement, with a request to the enforcement office, which issues a payment order (ödeme emri). In the bankruptcy route İİK 155 requires the order to contain additional warnings: that if the debt is not paid within seven days, the creditor may apply to the court for bankruptcy; that the debtor must notify the enforcement office by petition, within the same seven days, of any objection that the debt is not owed or that the debtor is not subject to bankruptcy; and that the debtor may propose a concordat.
The seven days run from service of the order. Service on a Turkish company is made at its registered address under the Notification Law, and a creditor abroad should ensure that its Turkish lawyer tracks the date of service in the electronic enforcement file, because every later step is measured from it. The debtor’s objection may concern the debt, the amount, or its status as a person subject to bankruptcy. An objection on the last ground is specific to this route and is often raised by debtors whose registration or business activity is in doubt.
3. No Objection: Petition to the Commercial Court and the One-Year Limit (İİK 156, 159)
If the debtor does not object within the period, İİK 156 allows the creditor to request a bankruptcy decision from the commercial court by petition. The petition must be accompanied by the copy of the payment order showing that the debtor did not object. The court has jurisdiction over the bankruptcy request, not the enforcement court, which is a difference from the attachment route in which objections are removed by the enforcement court.
Two rules shape the creditor’s timing. The first is the limit in İİK 156: the right to request bankruptcy lapses one year after service of the payment order. The second is the court’s power under İİK 159 to order, from the outset, all protective measures it considers necessary in the creditors’ interest. Where the debtor did not object to the payment order, the court must order those measures if the creditor asks for them. The court may require the creditor to give security against the loss the measures may cause if the creditor proves wrong, but no security is required where the debtor did not object or where the claim rests on a judgment, and the State and persons granted legal aid are exempt. Protective measures ordered under İİK 159 do not affect other enforcement pursuits against the debtor.
In practice, the protective measures are what turn the bankruptcy request into immediate pressure. A measure preventing the debtor from disposing of assets while the request is pending tells the debtor’s management, its bank and its counterparties that the creditor is serious, weeks before any bankruptcy decision.
4. Objection: Removal of the Objection and Bankruptcy in One Action (İİK 156)
If the debtor objects in time, İİK 156 provides that the enforcement stops. The creditor may then ask the commercial court, by one petition, both to remove the objection and to declare the debtor bankrupt. The court examines the objection and the bankruptcy request together. Under İİK 158 it hears the case under the simple procedure and examines both the bankruptcy request and the debtor’s objections and defences according to the general rules.
Because the court examines the objections under the general rules, the creditor must be ready to prove the debt as in an ordinary commercial case: the contract or purchase orders, invoices and delivery records, the commercial books, and correspondence in which the debtor acknowledged the debt or did not dispute it. A foreign creditor should assemble and translate this file before the pursuit is filed, not after the objection arrives. Where the debtor’s objections concern only part of the debt, the court’s assessment of the undisputed part is often decisive for the settlement that follows.
5. Announcement, Intervention by Other Creditors and the Order to Pay or Deposit (İİK 158)
İİK 158 contains the stages that follow once the pursuit is final. The bankruptcy pursuit is announced in the manner set out in İİK 166(2). Within fifteen days of the announcement, other creditors may intervene or object, arguing that there is no situation requiring bankruptcy and asking the court to reject the request. This mechanism exists because a bankruptcy affects every creditor of the debtor, not only the one who petitioned.
The court then calls for the enforcement file and hears the case. If the debtor did not object in due form, or its objections and defences are found unfounded, the court orders the debtor to pay the debt with interest and enforcement costs within seven days, or to deposit that amount with the court (the order commonly called depo emri). The order is given to the debtor or to the lawyer representing it in the bankruptcy case, at the hearing if the case proceeds in the debtor’s presence, otherwise by service under the Notification Law. If the debtor refuses, bankruptcy is declared at the first hearing.
This is the point at which many files are resolved. A debtor that is still trading and able to pay has, at this stage, a clear choice between paying or depositing the debt and losing the business to a bankruptcy administration. Deposits and settlements at this stage are common, and a creditor that has prepared a realistic settlement position, including instalments secured by guarantees, is better placed than one that has prepared only for bankruptcy.
6. Related Routes: Bills of Exchange and Direct Bankruptcy (İİK 167, 173, 177)
The ordinary bankruptcy pursuit is one of several bankruptcy tools. Where the claim rests on a cheque, bill of exchange or promissory note, İİK 167 allows the holder to choose the special bankruptcy route for negotiable instruments against a debtor subject to bankruptcy, and the request must state which road the creditor chooses and attach the original instrument. In that route İİK 173 shortens the debtor’s period to five days and provides that a debtor who, after the period, produces an official document proving payment causes the pursuit and the bankruptcy case to lapse.
İİK 177 lists the cases of direct bankruptcy, in which the creditor may request the bankruptcy of a debtor subject to bankruptcy without any prior pursuit: where the debtor has no known residence, flees to escape obligations, engages or attempts to engage in fraudulent transactions harming creditors, or hides assets during an attachment pursuit; where the debtor has stopped payments; in the case referred to in İİK 308; and where a judgment debt demanded by an enforcement order remains unpaid, in which case a debtor with a residence or representative in Türkiye is summoned to be heard within a short period. Direct bankruptcy is a serious request and depends on proof of the listed facts, not on the size of the debt.
Where a debtor answers a pursuit by moving assets out of reach, the criminal route may also be relevant. İİK 331(1) punishes a debtor who, with intent to harm creditors, removes, destroys or devalues assets, transfers them by sham transactions or acknowledges fictitious debts after an attachment pursuit has been requested or within the two years before that request, where the creditor proves a certificate of insolvency or that the claim could not be recovered; under İİK 331(2) the same applies to a debtor who commits those acts before a bankruptcy pursuit or, in direct bankruptcy cases, before the bankruptcy request. The offence is prosecuted on the creditor’s complaint.
7. Comparing the Roads
| Route | Available against | Debtor’s period | Who decides | Main lever | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attachment (haciz yolu) | Any debtor | Seven days to pay or object (İİK 60) | Enforcement office and enforcement court | Seizure and sale of assets | Scattered or encumbered assets slow recovery |
| Ordinary bankruptcy (İİK 155-158) | Merchants and persons subject to bankruptcy (İİK 43) | Seven days to pay or object (İİK 155) | Commercial court | Order to pay or deposit within seven days (İİK 158) | Collective procedure if bankruptcy is declared |
| Bankruptcy on negotiable instruments (İİK 167, 173) | Debtors subject to bankruptcy, claim on cheque, bill or note | Five days (İİK 173) | Commercial court | Short period, instrument-based claim | Payment proven by official document ends the case |
| Direct bankruptcy (İİK 177) | Debtors subject to bankruptcy | No prior pursuit | Commercial court | Speed where fraud or stoppage of payments is proven | Heavy burden of proving the listed facts |
8. When the Bankruptcy Route Is the Right Tool, and When It Is Not
The route works best against a debtor that is solvent but unwilling: a trading company with an operating business, active bank relationships and a reputation to protect, which is withholding payment to finance itself at the creditor’s expense. For that debtor, the order to pay or deposit is a moment of truth, and the protective measures available under İİK 159 add pressure while the case is pending.
The route is the wrong tool against a debtor that is genuinely insolvent. A bankruptcy declared at the creditor’s request opens a collective procedure in which the petitioning creditor shares the estate with all other creditors according to the statutory ranking, and bears the costs of the steps it has asked for. Against such a debtor, the creditor may recover more by securing its position early, for example through interim attachment, or by negotiating with the debtor and its other creditors in a restructuring.
For a foreign creditor the practical sequence is: confirm the debtor’s merchant status from the trade registry; assemble and translate the evidence of the debt; choose the road with counsel in light of the debtor’s assets and business; calendar the seven days from service and the one-year limit; request protective measures where the debtor did not object; and prepare a settlement position for the hearing at which the order to pay or deposit will be given. The bankruptcy route is a lever with a long handle. Used against the right debtor, at the right time, it shortens a collection that the attachment route would stretch over months.
For the other routes open to a foreign creditor, enforcement without a judgment, precautionary attachment and the action to annul transfers made to defeat creditors, see our commercial debt collection practice.
