Legal Glossary

A payment order (ödeme emri) is the official document issued by the enforcement office, upon the creditor’s enforcement request in enforcement proceedings without a judgment, and served on the debtor, demanding payment of the debt within a certain period and notifying the right to object. It is regulated in Article 60 of Law No. 2004 on Enforcement and Bankruptcy (İİK); in the general attachment route, the period for payment and objection is, as a rule, seven days. In payment services legislation, the same term denotes the instruction given to a payment service provider for a payment transaction.

A payment service is one of the services listed in Article 12 of Law No. 6493 that intermediate the depositing, transfer or withdrawal of funds. They include operating a payment account, money transfer, issuing or accepting payment instruments such as cards, money remittance, intermediating bill payments, initiating payment orders and account information services. As a rule, only banks, electronic money institutions, payment institutions and PTT may provide these services; the power to grant permits and to supervise lies with the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (Türkiye Cumhuriyet Merkez Bankası).

Personal data is any information that identifies a natural person, either directly or when combined with other information. It is regulated in Article 3/1-d of Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data and is based on a person whose identity is identified or identifiable. Name, identity number, contact details, photographs, voice recordings and location fall within this scope. Information relating to legal entities and data that has been anonymized in such a way that it cannot be linked to any person remain outside the protection of the Law.

A petition (dilekçe) is a document by which a person communicates a request, objection or complaint in writing to a court, an enforcement office or an administrative authority. In the written procedure, the statement of claim, statement of defense, reply and rejoinder define the framework of the claim and the defense; in the simplified procedure, a reply and a rejoinder cannot be filed. The elements a petition must contain are listed in the relevant statute; a petition that is incomplete, addressed to the wrong authority or filed after the deadline may lead to a loss of rights.

A pledge (rehin) is a limited real right created over property or a right in order to secure a claim. If the debt is not paid, the creditor may have this property or right converted into money and obtain payment of the claim from the proceeds, according to the ranking among other pledgees, if any. The main forms are the mortgage (ipotek) for immovable property, the possessory pledge for movables as a rule, and the pledge of rights for receivables and rights. The basic provisions are in Article 850 et seq. and Article 939 et seq. of the Turkish Civil Code.

Precautionary attachment (ihtiyati haciz) is the temporary attachment of the debtor’s property, rights and receivables, in respect of a monetary claim, before the proceedings have become final and the stage of final attachment has been reached; its purpose is to protect the claim against the risk of going unsatisfied. Its general regime is in Article 257 et seq. of Law No. 2004 on Enforcement and Bankruptcy (İİK): the court issues the decision, as a rule a monetary debt that is due and not secured by a pledge is required, and the creditor, as a rule, provides security. Law No. 6183 provides a separate regime for public receivables.

A preclusive period (hak düşürücü süre) is a period within which a right can be exercised and upon whose expiry the right itself comes to an end. Turkish law has no general statutory definition of it; these periods are mostly provided for in special provisions of statutes such as the Turkish Code of Obligations, the Turkish Civil Code and the Turkish Commercial Code, and, according to legal scholarship, may also be agreed by contract. According to settled practice, the judge takes this period into account ex officio; in this respect it differs from the statute of limitations in the law of obligations, which the debtor must invoke.

Procedural capacity is a person’s ability to conduct a civil action on their own behalf and to perform procedural acts validly. It is connected with capacity to act under civil law. Persons who lack procedural capacity act in the action through their legal representatives.

A procedural prerequisite (dava şartı) is a procedural condition that must exist for the court to be able to examine the merits of the dispute. The court examines procedural prerequisites on its own motion at every stage of the proceedings. If the deficiency is capable of being remedied, a firm deadline is given for it to be completed; if it is not or cannot be remedied, the action is dismissed on procedural grounds without a decision on the merits.

Profiling is the automated processing of a person’s personal data in order to evaluate or predict characteristics such as work performance, economic situation, health, preferences, reliability, behavior or location. The Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 (KVKK) contains no definition of profiling; the definition most commonly relied on is found in Article 4(4) of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The closest provision in Turkish law is the right to object to an adverse result arising exclusively from automated analysis (KVKK Article 11/1-g).

A public offering is a general call to the public by any means to purchase capital market instruments, followed by the sale made on the basis of that call. Company shares or debt instruments are offered in this way to an indefinite number of investors. As a rule, a prospectus approved by the Capital Markets Board (SPK) is required; for losses arising from false, misleading or incomplete information in the prospectus, the issuer is liable first and, under the conditions in the law, other persons concerned such as the offerors and the members of the board of directors.