The Communiqué on Procedures and Principles to be Followed in International Notification and Rogatory Requests (“Communiqué”) was published in Official Gazette numbered 30990 on 26 December 2019, entering into effect on 1 January 2020.

With the Communiqué:

  • Service and rogatory fees have increased by around 10%, in line with Turkey’s annual inflation rate, as usual.
  • Separate procedural rules concerning international service requests are introduced for Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, the USA, Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Estonia, France, Canada, Northern Ireland, Latvia, San Marino, Singapore, Thailand, and Greece.
  • Separate procedural rules concerning international rogatory requests are introduced for Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Germany, Denmark, Canada and Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Communiqué also introduces new rules for public files and files with legal aid requests. In these files, the Treasury pays expenditures in advance without parties having to request this. In this context, now the following is required:

  • Postal fees need to be paid to “Miscellaneous Revenues” account of the Turkish Ministry of Treasury and Finance, attaching a payment receipt or date and number thereof to the document to be sent to the Ministry.
  • The requested expenditure needs to be supplied in advance and a receipt needs to be attached to the document to be mailed.
  • Requested advance expenditures should not be deposited, payments of requested expenditures need to be made after the conclusion of the process, and a receipt copy needs to be sent to the Ministry.
  • Commitment letters must not be required.

Please see this link for the full text of Communiqué (only available in Turkish).