Which Court Hears Your Tenfiz Case, and Where

A Turkish tenfizTenfizEnforcement of a foreign judgment in TürkiyeThe Turkish court decision that makes a foreign judgment enforceable in Türkiye — the step that lets you actually collect.Glossary → case — the court action that makes your foreign judgment enforceable (tenfiz) in Türkiye (Turkey) — is heard by a civil court of first instance, the asliye hukuk mahkemesiAsliye hukuk mahkemesiCivil court of first instanceThe general civil court that hears most disputes not assigned to a specialised court.Glossary →. You file it in the town where the person you are enforcing against lives; if they have no address in Türkiye, you may choose a court in Ankara, İstanbul or İzmir. Winning abroad is a real relief, but that win does not cross the border on its own — it needs a Turkish court to give it effect. This guide answers the two questions clients ask first: which court, and where. We keep it plain, and we flag where a foreign arbitral award or a divorce follows different rules.

Which court hears a tenfiz case in Türkiye?

Your tenfiz case is heard by a Turkish civil court of first instance — in Turkish, the asliye hukuk mahkemesi. "Enforcement" here means tenfiz: the court action that turns your foreign court judgment into something you can actually enforce in Türkiye, the same way you would enforce a Turkish judgment.

That is the general rule. If your dispute is a commercial one, a different bench inside the same court system hears it — the commercial court of first instance — which we cover below.

One point reassures most clients: the Turkish court does not re-try your case. Under the simplified procedure it uses (MÖHUKMÖHUKTurkish Private International Law Act No. 5718The Turkish statute that decides which country's law applies to a cross-border matter, and how foreign judgments are recognised and enforced here.Glossary → art. 55), there is no fresh trial on the merits — no révision au fond. The judge checks whether the legal conditions to enforce are met, not whether the foreign court decided rightly. Those conditions are the subject of a separate guide on the conditions to enforce a foreign judgment.

Where — which city — do you actually file it?

You file at the court for the Turkish home address of the person you are enforcing against — their domicile (permanent home) or, failing that, their residence. This is the "venue" question: not which type of court, but which town's court.

If that person has no domicile or residence in Türkiye — common when you are chasing a foreign company or someone who lives abroad — the law gives you a choice of three courts: Ankara, İstanbul or İzmir.

What if your dispute is commercial — does that change the court?

Yes. If the underlying matter is commercial, the case goes to the commercial court of first instance (asliye ticaret mahkemesi) instead of the general civil court. The city (venue) rule stays the same; only the bench changes.

Whether a matter counts as "commercial" is a question of Turkish law — broadly, disputes between merchants or arising from a commercial business, such as unpaid invoices between companies, supply and distribution contracts, or company-to-company debt. If your judgment comes from a cross-border trade dispute, this is usually your court.

Getting this classification right at the filing stage matters, because filing in the wrong bench costs time. It ties into your wider recovery plan — see the pillar guide on recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments.

Which court handles a foreign arbitral award — is it the same?

No — and this is the trap to avoid. A foreign arbitral award (a decision from an arbitration panel, not a national court) runs on a different regime. You do not use the tenfiz articles that govern court judgments.

Awards are enforced mainly through the 1958 New York Convention, to which Türkiye is a party, supported by MÖHUK arts 60–63. The court is still an asliye (first-instance) court, but the venue ladder is different.

The grounds to refuse an award are also narrower than for a court judgment — essentially the New York Convention's Article V list (for example, an invalid arbitration agreement, improper notice, an award that goes beyond what was submitted, or enforcement contrary to public policy). MÖHUK art. 62 sets out the matching grounds, including public policy (kamu düzeni). For the detail, see our guide on enforcing a foreign arbitral award under the New York Convention.

Which forum recognises a foreign divorce?

If you only need a foreign divorce recognised — so your marital status is updated in Türkiye — you often do not need a full court case at all.

There are two routes. The first is recognition (tanımaTanımaRecognition of a foreign judgment in TürkiyeThe court decision that makes a foreign judgment legally effective in Türkiye as proof — without, by itself, making it enforceable.Glossary →) before a Turkish family court, which gives the foreign judgment legal effect here. The second, available since 2017, is an administrative route: a foreign divorce can be registered directly in the Turkish population register through the civil registry or a Turkish consulate, without going to court, when the conditions are met.

Which route fits depends on your documents and circumstances. This is its own area — our divorce and family law service covers it in full.

Which court for which situation, at a glance?

Here is the quick map. In every row the court is a first-instance court; what changes is the bench and the venue.

Why does choosing the right forum matter for assets and speed?

Because the forum shapes the two things you care about most: reaching the assets and speed.

On assets: winning tenfiz is not the finish line — it is the permission slip to collect. If the court, the debtor's base and the assets all sit in one place, later enforcement runs more smoothly. When you have the three-city choice, aligning the forum with where the value actually is can save a round of steps. Our guide on enforcing against assets in Türkiye shows what happens after judgment.

On speed: a case filed in the correct bench, with complete documents, avoids the delay of a jurisdiction objection or a transfer. As a rough sense of scale — and these are estimates only, never a promise — an uncontested tenfiz case often takes around 6–10 months at first instance, while a contested one can run 12–24 months. An administrative divorce registration is usually measured in weeks to a few months.

Once you win, which office actually collects the money?

The court that grants tenfiz and the office that collects your money are not the same body. The court gives the ruling; the enforcement offices (icra daireleri) carry it out against assets in Türkiye.

Once your tenfiz judgment is in hand, it is executed the same way a Turkish judgment is — through the enforcement offices under the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Act (İİK, Law No. 2004). That is where steps like attaching bank accounts, real estate or receivables happen.

Do you have to travel, and how does counsel fix the right court for your facts?

No — you do not have to be in Türkiye. A power of attorney (vekâletname) lets a lawyer admitted to a Turkish bar run the whole case for you remotely, from filing to collection, without you travelling.

Which court, which bench and which city are all jurisdiction questions, and they turn on facts specific to you: is the matter civil or commercial, does the debtor have a Turkish address, is this a judgment or an award, and where do the assets sit. These are exactly the points counsel pins down before filing — alongside the documents you will need, covered in the documents for a tenfiz case (a final, apostilled judgment with a sworn Turkish translation).

If you are holding a foreign judgment or award and want to know which court would hear it, you can tell us about your matter and we will map the forum to your facts.

This article is general information about Turkish law and is not legal advice; for advice on your specific situation, consult a qualified lawyer.

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