Recognition of a UK Divorce in Turkey: From the Final Order to the Turkish Civil Register

A final order made by a court in England and Wales, a decree of divorce from a Scottish court or a decree absolute from a court in Northern Ireland ends the marriage under the law of that part of the United Kingdom. None of them changes the Turkish civil register on its own. Each citizen’s entry in the family register shows marital status and changes in personal status such as marriage and divorce (Population Services Law No. 5490, Article 7(1)(d) and (f)), and a UK divorce reaches it only through one of the routes Turkish law provides.

One route runs through the population services: a Turkish mission in the UK, or a population directorate in Türkiye, registers the divorce under Article 27/A of Law No. 5490 (Nüfus Hizmetleri Kanunu). The other is judicial: a Turkish family court recognises the UK decision in a recognition case (tanıma davası) under Article 58 of Law No. 5718 on International Private and Procedural Law (MÖHUK). This guide sets out which UK document the Turkish side needs from each of the three UK legal systems, who may sign the consulate application, when only a court can help, and why orders about children and money follow separate rules. Lex Lata advises on Turkish law; a question of English, Scottish or Northern Irish law belongs to a solicitor qualified there.

Which UK order ends the marriage

Both the Turkish commission and the Turkish court look for a decision that has become final. Each part of the UK names that point differently, and the Turkish file has to carry the right one.

England and Wales. For divorce applications the court issued on or after 6 April 2022, the two orders are the conditional order and the final order. For applications issued before that date, they were the decree nisi and the decree absolute. GOV.UK explains that a person is still married after the conditional order or decree nisi, must wait at least 43 days before applying to finalise, and is divorced once the final order or decree absolute is made. The conditional order is therefore not a decision Article 27/A can register.

Scotland. Scottish court documents speak of the decree of divorce and the extract decree of divorce. An action can be raised in the sheriff court or in the Court of Session. The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service explains that an extract of a divorce granted after 1984 can be ordered from the National Records of Scotland, and an extract of an earlier divorce from the Court of Session.

Northern Ireland. The County Court and the High Court deal with divorce. The judge grants a decree nisi; at least six weeks and one day later the petitioner can apply for the decree absolute. NI Direct states that the marriage formally ends when the decree absolute is granted.

Whichever part of the UK the order comes from, the Turkish side asks two things: is this the order that ended the marriage, and has it become final under the law of the place where it was made? Article 27/A requires a decision that has become final in due form, and the Registration Regulation asks for a certified document showing finality where the decision itself carries no note of finality (Article 7(1)(c)). Whether a particular English, Scottish or Northern Irish document shows finality on its face is a question for a solicitor in that jurisdiction. Settle it before you pay for a translation.

Registration at a Turkish mission under Article 27/A

The four statutory conditions

Article 27/A was added to Law No. 5490 by Decree-Law No. 690 in 2017 and accepted by Law No. 7077 in 2018. It covers foreign decisions on divorce, nullity, annulment and whether a marriage exists, and has them registered in the civil register on four conditions:

1. the parties apply together, in person or through agents, or, where one of them has died or is a foreigner, the other party who is a Turkish citizen, or that party’s agent, applies alone (the sole application was added by Law No. 7226 in 2020);
2. a judicial or administrative authority with competence on the subject under the issuing state’s laws gave the decision;
3. it has become final in due form;
4. it is not manifestly contrary to Turkish public order.

The procedure is in the Regulation on the Registration in the Civil Register of Decisions Given by Foreign Judicial or Administrative Authorities (Official Gazette, 7 February 2018, amended 30 August 2020), called the Registration Regulation below.

Which Turkish office takes the file

Article 27/A(2) gives registration abroad to the Turkish missions in the country where the decision was given, and the Regulation defines a mission as Türkiye’s embassy, consulate general or consular agency in that country (Article 4(1)(ç)). A divorce from England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland is therefore filed in the UK: at the Embassy in London or at the Consulates General in London, Edinburgh and Manchester. Before posting original papers, check with the consular section that covers your address how it takes in these files. In Türkiye, the application goes to the provincial population directorate where either party is domiciled; where there is no domicile in Türkiye, it goes to one of eighteen listed directorates, among them Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Antalya and Bursa (Registration Regulation Article 5).

Whose signature the mission needs

Take a British-Turkish man in Birmingham who holds both passports and was divorced by a final order in 2024. If his former wife is also a Turkish citizen, the application needs both of them. Joint does not mean side by side at the counter: each may file at a different time, provided the two applications are no more than ninety days apart (Registration Regulation Article 6(1)). If she holds British citizenship only, he may apply alone (Article 6(2)).

Now take a British citizen who never held Turkish citizenship and whose former husband is Turkish. The statute gives the sole application only to the party who is a Turkish citizen. She can join a joint application, or he can apply without her. If he does nothing, the court route described below is open to her.

If one former spouse has died, the surviving Turkish citizen may apply alone (Article 6(2)), adding the duly certified death document with a Turkish translation certified by a notary or a mission (Article 7(1)(e)). If both former spouses died before anyone applied, persons with a legal interest may apply, except for divorces made by a unilateral declaration of will (Article 6(3)). Nobody has to apply in person: a legal representative or an agent may file (Article 6(1)), and the agent may be either a Turkish citizen or a foreign individual (Article 4(1)(i)).

A British-Turk who kept Turkish citizenship is a Turkish citizen for all of this: Turkish law defines multiple citizenship as a Turkish citizen holding more than one citizenship at the same time (Turkish Citizenship Law No. 5901, Article 3(1)(b)). The position changes for someone who was born a Turkish citizen and later left that citizenship with official permission. The Blue Card register (Mavi Kartlılar Kütüğü) holds such persons and their descendants within Article 28 of Law No. 5901. Under Article 8/A of Law No. 5490, anyone in that register must declare all civil-status events to population directorates in Türkiye or to Turkish missions abroad, and the Law lists divorce among those events (Article 3(1)(y)).

How the commission decides

Each file goes to a commission formed at the mission or the directorate, which examines whether the decision can be registered and decides by a majority of those present (Registration Regulation Articles 8, 9(2) and 9(4)). When files are waiting, it has to meet within fifteen days at the latest (Article 9(3)). An incomplete file gets ninety days for the missing papers; if they do not arrive in that time, the application is rejected (Article 7(4)). A pending or dismissed Turkish case about the same decision is also a ground for rejection (Article 9(6)), and a decision manifestly contrary to Turkish public order is rejected with reasons (Article 9(7)). Once the commission decides to register, the mission or directorate has seven days to enter the divorce in the family register (Article 10(1)). Neither Article 27/A nor the Regulation sets a time limit for making the application.

Preparing the UK papers for a Turkish commission

The commission works from the list in Article 7 of the Registration Regulation. Seen from the UK, the items are these.

• The application form (Article 7(1)(a)).
• The order. Article 7(1)(b) asks for the duly certified original of the decision and its Turkish translation. GOV.UK lists documents issued by a court and sealed with a wet ink court seal among those the FCDO Legalisation Office can legalise; other documents can be legalised once a UK public official, such as a notary or solicitor, has certified them. If your order reached you electronically, check which of these two paths applies before you apply for the apostille.
• The apostille. Both states are parties to the Apostille Convention, in force for the UK since 24 January 1965 and for Türkiye since 29 September 1985. The FCDO Legalisation Office issues apostilles for documents from all parts of the UK. GOV.UK describes a paper apostille and an electronic e-Apostille and advises checking with whoever asked for the document which one they need, so ask the Turkish mission before you choose.
• Proof of finality. Where the order carries no note of finality, a certified document or letter showing that it became final under the law of the issuing country, translated and certified in the same way (Article 7(1)(c)).
• The translation. Article 7(1)(b) accepts a Turkish translation in any of three forms: notarised, certified by a Turkish mission, or apostilled by the competent authority of the country concerned.
• Identity. Article 7(1)(ç) asks for copies of identity cards or passports and, where one party is a foreigner, notarised Turkish translations of the identity cards or passports.
• An agent’s authority. Where an agent files, Article 7(1)(d) requires a special power of attorney with a photograph, drawn up by a notary, in the original or as a certified true copy. Under the Regulation’s definition, the power may come from Turkish authorities or from foreign authorities, in the latter case duly certified (Article 4(1)(ı)). Our guide to power of attorney and apostille from the UK for Türkiye sets the Consulate General option against a UK notary public with an apostille.
• Turkish court status. Article 7(2) asks for details of any Turkish case about the decision or, failing that, a document from the judicial authorities confirming that no case is pending and that recognition has not been refused before.

Check one earlier step as well. If the couple married before a UK registrar or another UK authority, Article 24(1) of Law No. 5490 provides for a marriage of Turkish citizens before foreign authorities to be reported to the Turkish mission there within thirty days at the latest. Where it was not, take that up with the mission first; the divorce presupposes a marriage that the Turkish record may not contain.

When only a Turkish court can help

Registration at a mission does not take the file to its end in these situations:

• the commission has refused registration, in which case Article 27/A(3) of Law No. 5490 and Article 11 of the Registration Regulation send the file to recognition under MÖHUK;
• the former spouses are both Turkish and one of them refuses to apply or cannot be traced;
• the other former spouse disputes the UK decision and will not join an application, for example saying the divorce papers never reached them;
• orders about children, maintenance or property have to take effect in Türkiye (the conventions that may apply to them are covered in the next section).

No treaty for the divorce. No treaty between the UK and Türkiye provides for the recognition and enforcement of civil and commercial judgments in general; the 1931 bilateral convention on legal proceedings covers procedure and only certain costs orders. The UK is a party to the 1970 Hague Convention on the Recognition of Divorces and Legal Separations, but Türkiye is not, so that convention does not apply between them. Recognition of the divorce therefore rests on MÖHUK; orders about children and maintenance are a different matter, covered below.

The court. Under Family Courts Law No. 4787, recognising and enforcing foreign family-law judgments is family court work (Article 4, item 2). That item still refers to Law No. 2675, the predecessor of MÖHUK, which MÖHUK Article 64(1) repealed. In a place without a family court, the civil court of first instance designated for the purpose takes these cases (Law No. 4787, Article 2).

What recognition requires. A foreign judgment is accepted as res judicata or conclusive evidence once the court finds that it meets the enforcement conditions, and the reciprocity condition in Article 54(1)(a) is not applied to recognition (MÖHUK Article 58(1)). The court checks the rest of Article 54(1). Point (b) contains two alternatives linked in the statute by “or”: either the matter is outside the exclusive jurisdiction of Turkish courts, or, where the respondent objects, the decision was not given by the court of a state that claimed jurisdiction although it had no real connection with the subject matter or the parties. Under point (c), the decision must not be manifestly contrary to public order. Point (ç) is not met where, under the law of the place where the decision was given, the person against whom it is invoked was not duly summoned, was not represented, or was judged in default or in absence contrary to that law, and that person objects in the Turkish court on one of those grounds.

That last point matters when the former spouse was living in Türkiye during the UK proceedings. Türkiye has declared its opposition to the channels in Article 10 of the Hague Service Convention, postal channels included, and the objection under point (ç) is decided on the facts of each case. Our guide to serving UK court documents and taking evidence in Türkiye covers the service routes.

Procedure. Article 58 does not say where or how a recognition case is filed. The rules on venue, the petition and its attachments are written for enforcement: enforcement may be sought where the respondent is domiciled in Türkiye, otherwise where the respondent is resident, and otherwise in Ankara, Istanbul or Izmir (Article 51(2)); the petition names the parties and the UK court with the date, number and a summary of the decision (Article 52); and it attaches the decision certified by the UK authorities or by the court that gave it, a document showing that it is final certified by the UK authorities, and certified translations of both (Article 53). For enforcement, Article 55(1) has the petition served on the other side together with the hearing date, and the court decides under the simple procedure. The same procedure governs a request that a Turkish administrative authority act on a foreign judgment (Article 58(3)).

Children and money: orders the consulate cannot register

Where a foreign decision also contains provisions subject to enforcement, such as custody, child maintenance, contact with the child, matrimonial property or compensation, the commission accepts, examines and decides on it as to the divorce, and its decision produces no result for those provisions; a recognition or enforcement case may be brought for them before the competent Turkish court (Registration Regulation Article 9(5)).

In England and Wales, GOV.UK describes a child arrangements order as the court deciding where a child lives, who the child spends time with and what other contact takes place; parents who agree can ask the court to approve a consent order, and a court can make a financial order about money and property. These are orders of a court. MÖHUK’s enforcement rules speak of judgments given by foreign courts in civil matters (Article 50(1)), so the document that can be recognised or enforced in Türkiye is the order the UK court made, not an arrangement the parents kept between themselves.

Treaties come first. MÖHUK states that the international conventions to which Türkiye is a party are reserved (Article 1(2)). Two of them matter for UK families:

• The 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention. In force for the UK since 1 November 2012 and for Türkiye since 1 February 2017. It covers measures on rights of custody and rights of access (Article 3(b)) but not maintenance (Article 4(e)). Measures taken in one Contracting State are recognised by operation of law in the others (Article 23(1)), subject to the refusal grounds in Article 23(2), one of which is recognition that is “manifestly contrary to public policy of the requested State, taking into account the best interests of the child” (Article 23(2)(d)). Any interested person may ask the competent authorities to decide on recognition or non-recognition, under the procedure of the requested state (Article 24). Enforcement needs a declaration of enforceability or registration on request (Article 26). For recognition and enforcement between the UK and Türkiye, it covers measures taken after 1 February 2017, when it entered into force between them (Article 53(2)).
• The 2007 Hague Child Support Convention. In force for Türkiye since 1 February 2017; HCCH lists the UK as bound since 1 August 2014. It applies to maintenance obligations arising from a parent-child relationship towards a person under 21 and, with limits on the Central Authority procedure, to spousal support (Article 2(1)). Its recognition chapter covers maintenance decisions of judicial or administrative authorities, including settlements or agreements concluded before or approved by them (Article 19(1)). Between its parties it replaces the 1973 Hague Maintenance Convention where their scopes coincide (Article 48), and Türkiye has declared that it will prefer the Article 24 procedure for recognition and enforcement.

Parts of a financial order that are not maintenance, such as a transfer of property, fall outside the 2007 Convention, which deals with maintenance obligations (Article 2). For those, MÖHUK applies in full, and enforcement adds the reciprocity condition of Article 54(1)(a): an agreement based on reciprocity, or a statutory provision or actual practice in the UK that makes Turkish judgments enforceable. An order dealing with land in Türkiye needs particular care, because Article 54(1)(b) asks whether the matter falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of Turkish courts. The reciprocity question for money judgments is covered in more depth in enforcing a UK court judgment in Türkiye.

If a child is wrongfully removed to or kept in Türkiye, the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention, in force between the UK and Türkiye since 1 August 2000, has its own procedure aimed at the child’s prompt return (Article 1). That is a separate matter from recognising the divorce.

Matching each UK situation to a Turkish route

What changes once the divorce is on the Turkish record

Remarriage. Anyone who wants to remarry has to prove that the earlier marriage has ended (Turkish Civil Code, TMK, Article 130), and a marriage concluded while one spouse is still married is void (TMK Article 145, item 1). Because the register records marital status, the British-Turk from Birmingham is shown as married in Türkiye until his final order is entered, and Article 130 puts the burden of proving that the marriage has ended on him. That is the practical reason to register before planning a wedding in Türkiye.

The divorce date. When a UK divorce is recognised or registered under Article 27/A, the date the UK decision became final is entered as the divorce date (Population Services Implementing Regulation, Article 27(1)).

Waiting period. TMK Article 132 bars a woman from marrying for three hundred days after her marriage ends. Giving birth ends the period, and a court lifts it where she is shown not to be pregnant from the earlier marriage or where the former spouses want to marry each other again. It runs from the date the divorce decision became final (Implementing Regulation Article 23(1); Law No. 5490 Article 26), and marriage offices do not apply it to a foreign woman whose national law has no waiting period (Implementing Regulation Article 23(2)).

Surname. A divorced woman keeps the personal status acquired through marriage but takes back her pre-marriage surname; if she shows an interest in keeping her former husband’s surname and that it will not harm him, the judge allows it on her request (TMK Article 173(1) and (2)). In the register, her entry in the husband’s household is closed and reopened in the household where she was registered before the marriage (Implementing Regulation Article 28(1)). A woman who became a Turkish citizen together with her husband, or through marriage to a Turkish citizen, and was registered with his surname is registered with her pre-marriage surname where a foreign divorce has been recognised or registered under Article 27/A (Article 28(7)).

The family home in Türkiye. TMK Article 194 protects a flat in Türkiye that served as the family home: without the other spouse’s express consent, neither spouse may end a lease of it, transfer it or restrict rights over it (paragraph 1), and a spouse who is not the owner may ask the land registry to put an annotation on the title (paragraph 3). Turkish offices act on a foreign judgment after a Turkish court has recognised or enforced it, while foreign divorce decisions are registered under Article 27/A (Implementing Regulation Article 60(1) and (2); MÖHUK Article 58(3)). If such a flat is to be sold, it helps to have the divorce on the Turkish record first.

Inheritance. Under TMK Article 181(1), former spouses cannot, as spouses, be each other’s statutory heirs, and each loses what a disposition upon death made before the divorce gave them, unless the disposition itself shows otherwise. Under MÖHUK Article 59, the res judicata or conclusive-evidence effect of a foreign judgment runs from the moment it became final, so a recognition obtained after a former spouse has died still reaches back to that date; someone still has to apply for it. Inheriting property in Türkiye as a UK heir follows an estate from the certificate of inheritance to the land registry.

How Lex Lata handles UK divorce files

Lex Lata acts for clients in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in Turkish registration files and in recognition and enforcement cases concerning UK divorces and the orders that come with them. Files are run remotely, with correspondence in English. We check the sealed order, the finality document and the apostille before anything is translated, prepare the application for the Turkish mission or the petition to the family court, and act before the court under a power of attorney signed at a Turkish Consulate General or before a UK notary public with an apostille. Istanbul is two hours ahead of London during British Summer Time and three hours ahead in winter, so calls fit a UK working morning. Questions of English, Scottish or Northern Irish law stay with your UK solicitor; we work alongside them on the Turkish side. Divorce in Türkiye itself, custody, maintenance and the division of property are covered on our family law and divorce page. An overview of other matters is on our page about a lawyer in Türkiye for clients in the UK, our foreign judgments practice describes the court work, and you can write to us through the contact page.