Inheriting Property in Turkey as a US Heir: Probate Letters, US Wills and the Turkish Title Transfer

This guide explains which law governs, why US letters testamentary do not transfer a Turkish title deed, how the Turkish certificate of inheritance is obtained, what the 1961 Hague Convention does for a US will, what Article 35 says about US citizen heirs and how the three-month renunciation period runs.

Two siblings, one in San Diego and one in Brooklyn, learn that their late father’s flat in Ankara now belongs to them. A US citizen widow finds that the apartment in Izmir where she and her Turkish husband spent every summer is registered in his name alone. A retired engineer in New Jersey has signed a will that leaves his villa near Antalya to his second wife. Each family lives in the United States, and each property sits in a Turkish land registry (tapu).

For an American family the familiar reference point is probate. In California, for example, probate is the court process for distributing a deceased person’s assets and paying the debts, and the court appoints an executor or an administrator to manage the estate. Turkish law starts from a different point. The heirs acquire the estate as a whole, by operation of law, at the moment of death (Turkish Civil Code, Türk Medeni Kanunu, TMK, Article 599). What the heirs need in Türkiye is not an appointment but proof of who the heirs are.

This guide follows those three families through Turkish law: which law governs, why US letters testamentary or letters of administration do not move a Turkish title, how the Turkish certificate of inheritance is obtained, what a will signed in the United States can and cannot do, what Article 35 of the Land Registry Law says about heirs who are US citizens, and how an inheritance is renounced from abroad.

Turkish law or US law: the choice-of-law rules in MÖHUK

The starting point is Article 20 of the Turkish Private International and Procedural Law (MÖHUK, Law No. 5718). Article 20(1) sets two rules: the deceased’s national law governs succession, and Turkish law governs immovables located in Türkiye. Article 20(2) refers the rules on the grounds for opening the estate, on its acquisition and on its division to the law of the country where the estate is located.

For the three families this gives clear answers:

• The Ankara flat. The father was a Turkish citizen. Turkish law governs his estate as his national law, and it governs the flat as an immovable in Türkiye. It makes no difference whether he died in Ankara or in a hospital in Los Angeles.
• The Izmir apartment. The husband was a Turkish citizen, so Turkish law decides who inherits from him, including his US citizen widow.
• The Antalya villa. Even if the owner held only US citizenship, Turkish law governs the villa because it is located in Türkiye.

Two further rules matter for Turkish-American families. If the deceased held several nationalities and one of them was Turkish, Turkish law applies wherever MÖHUK points to national law (Article 4(1)(b)). If none of them was Turkish, the law of the state with which the person had the closer connection applies (Article 4(1)(c)).

For a US citizen who leaves assets in Türkiye other than real estate, such as a Turkish bank account, the national law is American. The United States is made up of many state legal systems, so Article 2(5) applies: which state’s law governs is determined by US law, and if US law has no decisive rule, the law of the region most closely connected with the dispute applies. A Turkish judge applies the governing foreign law ex officio and may ask the parties for help in establishing what it says; if its relevant provisions cannot be established despite all inquiries, Turkish law applies (Article 2(1) and (2)). Acquisition and division of assets located in Türkiye remain under Turkish law (Article 20(2)).

Why US probate letters do not change a Turkish title deed

A US probate court records an appointment. California’s official form for this purpose is headed “Letters” (testamentary, of administration, with will annexed, or of special administration) and states that the Superior Court has appointed a named person as executor or administrator. It does not list the heirs or say who receives which asset (Judicial Council of California, form DE-150).

A Turkish land registry asks a different question: who owns the property now? Three provisions explain why the letters cannot answer it on their own.

1. Heirs acquire directly. Under TMK Article 599, heirs acquire the estate at the death and take over the deceased’s real rights, claims and possession directly. Article 705(2) adds that in inheritance ownership is acquired before registration, but the new owner can dispose of the property only once it is registered in the land registry.
2. The registry acts on a certificate of inheritance. Article 37 of the Land Registry Law (Tapu Kanunu, Law No. 2644) provides that inheritance transfers concerning foreign natural persons are carried out on certificates of inheritance issued by Turkish courts, or on certificates issued by their own competent authorities that a Turkish court has confirmed as conforming to the Turkish rules of inheritance procedure.
3. Foreign court decisions go through a Turkish court first. Under MÖHUK Article 58(1), a foreign judgment is accepted as conclusive evidence or as res judicata only after a Turkish court finds that it meets the conditions for enforcement; the reciprocity condition in Article 54(1)(a) does not apply to recognition. The same rule covers decisions in non-contentious matters (Article 58(2)) and any administrative act carried out in Türkiye on the basis of a foreign court judgment (Article 58(3)).

The letters therefore do not, by themselves, allow anyone to register or sell the property in Türkiye. If a US court has issued an order that does determine the heirs, the family can ask a Turkish court to recognize it; our guide on enforcing a US court judgment in Türkiye explains how recognition works, and the general guide on foreign succession documents and the heir’s tapu transfer covers foreign estate papers more broadly. The Turkish document made for this purpose, however, is the certificate of inheritance.

Obtaining the Turkish certificate of inheritance

TMK Article 598 governs the certificate of inheritance (mirasçılık belgesi; in everyday speech many still say veraset ilamı):

• Legal heirs receive, on application, a certificate showing their status as heirs from a civil court of peace (sulh hukuk mahkemesi) or from a notary (Article 598(1)).
• Appointed heirs and legatees receive their certificate from the civil court of peace only, and only if the heirs or other legatees have not objected within one month from the date the disposition was notified to them (Article 598(2)).
• The invalidity of a certificate can be raised at any time, and the right to sue to annul a disposition is preserved (Article 598(3) and (4)).

The notary route has limits that matter to American families. Article 71/B of the Notaries Act (Noterlik Kanunu, Law No. 1512) states that a notary may not issue a certificate of inheritance where issuing it requires adjudication, where the civil registry records are not sufficient, or where the certificate is requested by foreigners. Anyone whose interests a notarial certificate harms may object to it before the civil court of peace (Article 71/C).

Applied to the three families:

• the siblings in California and New York, if both hold only US citizenship, apply to a civil court of peace;
• if one of them also holds Turkish citizenship and the family’s Turkish registry records are complete, that sibling may be able to use a notary, unless the case requires adjudication;
• the US citizen widow, applying herself, goes to a civil court of peace;
• the villa left by will needs the civil court of peace in any event, because Article 598(2) gives only that court the power to certify an appointed heir or legatee.

US records the Turkish court will rely on

A Turkish court establishes the heirs from evidence. For an American family that typically means the US death certificate, the birth certificates that link the children to the deceased, the marriage certificate of a surviving spouse and, where an earlier marriage ended, the divorce decree.

These are US public documents. Under Article 224(1) of the Code of Civil Procedure (HMK, Law No. 6100), a document prepared by foreign authorities has the character of an official document in Türkiye if it is approved by the competent authority of the issuing state or by the Turkish consulate, and Article 224(2) preserves the rules of international conventions to which Türkiye is a party. The Apostille Convention has been in force for the United States since 15 October 1981 and for Türkiye since 29 September 1985, so an apostille takes the place of consular legalization. Records issued by a state, such as death and birth certificates, are apostilled by the authority each state designates, generally its Secretary of State; documents of federal agencies by the US Department of State’s Office of Authentications; and documents of federal courts by the clerks of those courts.

A party relying on a document written in a foreign language must file its translation, and the court may ask for an official translation (HMK Article 223). Plan for a Turkish translation of every page, including the apostille certificate.

When the deceased was a Turkish citizen living in the US

For a Turkish citizen, the court and the notary work from the Turkish civil registry (nüfus kaydı). Turkish missions abroad must report a death to the civil registry authorities within ten days of learning of it (Civil Registry Services Law, Law No. 5490, Article 31(1)). A US divorce can be entered in the Turkish civil registry through the consulate if the conditions of Article 27/A are met; otherwise it needs recognition under MÖHUK, as our guide on recognition of a US divorce in Türkiye explains. Children born and marriages concluded in the United States should also appear in the registry before the inheritance file opens, because insufficient registry records are one of the grounds on which a notary must decline.

A will signed in the United States

Form: what the 1961 Hague Convention says

Türkiye is a party to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 on the Conflicts of Laws Relating to the Form of Testamentary Dispositions: it acceded on 23 August 1983, and the Convention entered into force for Türkiye on 22 October 1983. The United States is not a party. MÖHUK itself preserves the provisions of international conventions to which Türkiye is a party (Article 1(2)).

Under Article 1 of the Convention, a will is valid as regards form if its form complies with the internal law of any one of the following:

1. the place where the testator made it;
2. a nationality the testator possessed when making it or at death;
3. a place where the testator was domiciled when making it or at death;
4. the place where the testator had his or her habitual residence when making it or at death;
5. for immovables, the place where they are situated.

Four more provisions are useful for American wills. Where a national law consists of a non-unified system, as in the United States, the law to be applied is determined by the rules in force in that system and, failing such rules, by the testator’s most real connection with one of its laws (Article 1, second paragraph). Rules that limit the permitted forms by reference to age, nationality or other personal conditions, and the qualifications required of witnesses, count as matters of form (Article 5). The Convention applies without any requirement of reciprocity and even when the law it designates is not that of a Contracting State (Article 6). A court may refuse to apply a law designated by the Convention only when it is manifestly contrary to public policy (Article 7).

Türkiye made three reservations. Under Article 9, it determines under its own law (the law of the forum) the place where the testator had his or her domicile. Under Article 10, it may decline to recognize oral wills made by its own nationals who have no other nationality, save in exceptional circumstances. Under Article 12, it may exclude from the Convention clauses that, under Turkish law, do not relate to succession.

MÖHUK reaches a similar result on its own terms. Article 20(4) refers the form of a disposition mortis causa to Article 7, under which a legal act may be made in the form required by the law of the place where it is made or by the law governing its substance, and it also accepts dispositions made in the form of the deceased’s national law.

What the Convention does not decide

The Convention answers one question: was the will validly made as to form? It does not decide:

• capacity to make a will, which follows the testator’s national law at the time the will was made (MÖHUK Article 20(5));
• what the will may do with property in Türkiye, which is a matter of Turkish law for immovables (Article 20(1));
• how the will is put to use in Türkiye, which follows the Turkish opening procedure.

Opening the will before a Turkish judge

Turkish law requires every will found after a death to be delivered to a civil judge of peace, whether or not it is valid (TMK Article 595). The judge opens the will within one month of delivery and reads it to the persons concerned, and the known heirs and other interested persons are invited to attend (Article 596). Each beneficiary is served with a certified copy of the parts of the will that concern them (Article 597). Only after that, and if no objection is raised within one month of notification, does the civil court of peace issue the certificate for the appointed heir or legatee (Article 598(2)).

For the New Jersey will, plan to provide the will itself or a certified copy from the US court that holds it, with an apostille and a Turkish translation. If the will names an executor, note that Turkish law has its own will executor (vasiyeti yerine getirme görevlisi): a testator may appoint one by will, the civil judge of peace notifies the person of the role, and the role counts as accepted unless the person declines it within fifteen days of notification (TMK Article 550). Whether someone named as executor in a US will can act in that role in Türkiye is decided in the Turkish proceedings.

Reserved shares and the Antalya villa

Because Turkish law governs the villa, the Turkish reserved shares (saklı pay) apply to it. TMK Article 506 sets them at half of the legal share for descendants, one quarter of the legal share for each parent, and, for a surviving spouse, the whole legal share when inheriting with descendants or with the parents’ line, and three quarters of it otherwise.

If the engineer’s will leaves the whole villa to his second wife and he has children from his first marriage, those children may sue for reduction of the disposition (tenkis davası) to the extent their reserved shares are not covered (Article 560). The right to bring that action lapses one year after they learn that their reserved shares were infringed and, for wills, in any event ten years after the will was opened (Article 571).

Property left to a US trust or charity

Some American estate plans leave property to a revocable trust or to a charity rather than to individuals. Article 35 of the Land Registry Law speaks of foreign natural persons and of commercial companies with legal personality formed abroad under the laws of their own countries, which may acquire immovables and limited real rights only within the framework of special laws; it then states that those other than these commercial companies cannot acquire immovables and that limited real rights cannot be established in their favor. Turkish property left to a US trust, foundation or charity therefore needs a separate legal analysis before anything is filed in Türkiye.

What Article 35 says about American heirs

Article 35 of the Land Registry Law governs acquisition of real estate by foreign natural persons. Read in full, it provides:

• Who may acquire. Subject to legal restrictions, natural persons who are citizens of countries determined by the President, in view of bilateral international relations and where the country’s interests require, may acquire immovables and limited real rights in Türkiye (first paragraph).
• Area limits. The total area of immovables and independent and permanent limited real rights acquired by foreign natural persons may not exceed ten percent of the district’s area subject to private ownership, nor thirty hectares per person nationwide; the President may raise the per-person figure up to double (first paragraph).
• Presidential powers. Where the country’s interests require, the President may determine, limit, partly or wholly suspend, or prohibit acquisitions by foreign natural persons by country, person, geographic region, period, number, ratio, type, nature, surface area and amount (a later paragraph).
• Inheritance. The article mentions inheritance only in its last paragraph: immovables and limited real rights acquired by inheritance outside the restrictions of the first paragraph are liquidated and converted into money, with the price paid to the right holder, if the owner does not liquidate them within a period of no more than one year given by the Ministry of Finance.

Two points follow from the text. The article contains no reciprocity test; it relies on the President’s determination of countries and on the legal restrictions. And it does not declare an inheritance void: it describes property inherited outside the first paragraph’s restrictions as acquired by inheritance and provides for its liquidation, with the proceeds going to the right holder.

For the siblings and the widow, the practical step is to confirm at the start of the file that each US citizen heir’s acquisition falls within the first paragraph: whether the United States is among the countries the President has determined, and whether a restriction under the later paragraphs affects the location of the property.

Heirs who also hold Turkish citizenship stand in a different position. Turkish citizenship law defines a Turkish citizen as a person bound to the Turkish State by citizenship (Law No. 5901, Article 3(1)(ç)), and when a person who has acquired another citizenship submits the documents and is found to be the same person in the records, the civil registry notes the multiple citizenship (Article 44). Such heirs should make sure their Turkish registry record is current before the inheritance file starts.

Former Turkish citizens by birth who left Turkish citizenship with permission, and their descendants up to the third degree, continue to enjoy the rights of Turkish citizens except as Article 28 of Law No. 5901 provides: they do not vote or stand for election, may not import vehicles or household goods exempt from customs duty, have no military service obligation and cannot hold permanent public-law posts, and provisions on national security and public order are reserved. Acquiring real estate is not among the exceptions listed in Article 28(2) and (3). They may hold a Blue Card (Mavi Kart). Article 36 of the Land Registry Law names these persons expressly in its rule on companies, while Article 35 does not mention them, so a Blue Card heir should have the registry’s approach confirmed for the specific transfer.

Debts and the three-month renunciation period

A Turkish inheritance includes the debts: heirs become personally liable for the deceased’s debts (TMK Article 599(2)). An heir in the United States who suspects that a Turkish estate is insolvent should consider renunciation (mirasın reddi) at the outset.

• Who may renounce: legal and appointed heirs (Article 605(1)). If the deceased’s insolvency was evident or officially established at the date of death, the inheritance is deemed renounced (Article 605(2)).
• When: within three months. For legal heirs the period starts when they learned of the death, unless they prove they learned only later that they were heirs; for appointed heirs it starts when the disposition was officially notified to them (Article 606). If the estate is inventoried as a protective measure, the period starts for both when the civil judge of peace notifies them that the inventory is complete (Article 607). The Civil Code gives heirs in the United States no longer period.
• How: by an oral or written declaration to the civil court of peace, without conditions. The judge records it, and a renunciation made in time is entered in a special register kept by the civil court of peace of the place where the estate opened (Article 609).
• What ends the right: an heir who has not renounced within the period acquires the inheritance unconditionally. An heir who, before the period ends, meddles in the estate beyond ordinary administration, conceals estate assets or appropriates them can no longer renounce (Article 610).
• More time: the civil judge of peace may, where important reasons exist, extend the period or allow a new one (Article 615).

For the siblings, this means taking no step on the Ankara flat beyond ordinary administration, and taking no estate assets for themselves, until they have decided. A renunciation can be filed in Türkiye by a lawyer acting under a power of attorney; state the authority to renounce the inheritance expressly in the power.

From the United States to the land registry: the order of steps

1. Collect the US records. Death certificate, birth and marriage certificates, any divorce decree and, if there is one, the will. Obtain apostilles from the competent US authorities.
2. Sign a power of attorney. Use the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C. or a Turkish Consulate General in Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami or New York, where consuls perform notarial functions (Notaries Act Article 191), or sign before a US notary public and add an apostille. Our guide on the power of attorney and apostille from the US compares the two routes. If a sale is planned, give express authority to transfer immovables (Code of Obligations, Law No. 6098, Article 504(3)).
3. Open the will, if there is one, before a Turkish civil judge of peace (TMK Articles 595 to 597).
4. Apply for the certificate of inheritance to a civil court of peace, or to a notary where Article 71/B of the Notaries Act allows it.
5. Decide on renunciation within the three-month period (TMK Article 606).
6. Deal with the Turkish tax return. Heirs as a rule declare what they inherited in an inheritance and transfer tax return, and taxpayers abroad file it with a Turkish consulate (Inheritance and Transfer Tax Law No. 7338, Articles 7 and 8); questions on US tax belong to a US-qualified tax adviser.
7. Register the transfer (intikal) at the land registry. For a flat or house subject to compulsory earthquake insurance, the land registry cannot carry out the registration unless the insurance is shown to be valid on the date of the transaction (Law No. 6305, Article 11(2)).
8. Keep or sell. Until the estate is divided, the heirs own it jointly and dispose of it together, and at an heir’s request a civil court of peace may appoint a representative for the community of heirs (TMK Article 640). A sale to a third party follows the ordinary land registry rules.

Working with Lex Lata from the United States

Lex Lata acts for heirs living in the United States in Turkish inheritance and land registry matters. The work is done remotely and in English: we review the family situation and the US records, identify the Turkish route that applies, prepare the text of the power of attorney for the consulate or the US notary, and then handle the will opening, the certificate of inheritance, any renunciation and the registration in Türkiye. Lex Lata advises on Turkish law only; US probate and US tax questions stay with your US attorney or adviser.

Istanbul is seven hours ahead of New York and ten hours ahead of Los Angeles during US daylight saving time, and eight and eleven hours ahead in winter, because Türkiye does not change its clocks. Much of the work can be done by email and scanned copies; originals are sent by courier when a Turkish court or registry needs them.

You can write to us through the contact page. For other legal matters in Türkiye, see our guide for people in the United States and the real estate law practice page.