Glossary
Tanıma — meaning and English translation
Tanıma is the recognition by a Turkish court of a foreign judgment, most often a divorce, so that it has legal effect in Türkiye without a fresh trial.
A foreign court decision has no effect in Türkiye until a Turkish court recognises it. Tanıma, under the Code on International Private and Procedural Law (Law 5718), is the procedure for that: the family court checks that the foreign court had jurisdiction, that the decision is final and that recognising it would not offend Turkish public order, then declares it recognised without re-examining the merits. Since 2018 an administrative alternative, registration under Article 27/A of the Civil Registration Services Law, lets both former spouses apply jointly at a consulate or Nüfus Müdürlüğü instead.
We render tanıma as “recognition (of a foreign judgment)”, keeping the Turkish term in brackets, since the English word alone is too general for a court reader.
The UK court whose decree is being recognised plays no part, but the decree must be apostilled by the FCDO and translated into Turkish first; see recognition and enforcement of UK judgments in Türkiye.