MISCELLANEOUS
317
Pursuant to the Article 2 of the Act, foreign companies are required
to use Turkish language for the documents and books to be presented to
the Turkish governmental authorities within Turkey.
Moreover, foreign companies are required to use Turkish language
for the transactions and communications made with Turkish citizens and
Turkish companies.
Obligation for foreign companies to use Turkish language is only
limited to the circumstances mentioned above. In this framework, even
within Turkey, there is not any obligation to use Turkish language while
a foreign company concludes a transaction with another foreign company
or while the operation is related to its internal business.
Pursuant to the Article 3 of the Act, foreign companies may also use
a language other than Turkish language. According to the relevant article,
text in Turkish language is required to be added next to the text in foreign
language. However, it is the Turkish version of the text which should be
signed and attested, even though the text in foreign language is signed,
text in Turkish language shall prevail over.
One of the examples regarding obligation of use of Turkish language is
related to the trade name of the companies. Pursuant to the communiqué of
Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology, trade name and subsequent
name to this name are required to be in Turkish. Only exception of this
rule is that if the name or brand of the goods and services within the
activity of the company are foreign and a foreign person is a shareholder
of the company. However, this trade name is required to be compatible
with national and cultural values, public order and shall not be misleading
for third persons.
According to the enactment regarding bill of exchange and
considering the Turkish Commercial Code, issue of a bill of exchange
in foreign language is possible while the parties are Turkish citizens or
while a party is a Turkish citizen and the other party is foreign national.
Similarly, payment of a debt may be requested by the endorsement of the
bill of exchange issued in foreign language.
Pursuant to Article 4 of the Act, in case that all information and
documents which are not drafted in Turkish language by the above