Last Will & Testament Procedure in Turkish Law

The fourth book of the Turkish Civil Code is the Law of Succession. It consists of the rules about the transfer of a person’s property rights to the successors after his death. Not only the death but also the other situations of terminating personality, such as absence, death presumption, conclude succession.

Succession rights are the ordinary and natural result of blood relationship. In other words successors are the blood kinships of the deceased prescribed by law.

When a foreign person who is a resident of Turkey dies, then the rules regarding inheritance apply under the “Law on International Special Rights and Procedures”.

The law’s main principle is that where the will or inheritance of the deceased originated it will be subject to their national law.
This applies to movable property (cash savings, jewelers, cars, furniture, etc), while Turkish law applies to immovable property (bricks and mortar).
However, for both the movable and immovable property, the law of the place where the property is applied regarding the conditions of the opening, acquisition and division of heritage.
If the deceased foreigner has no legal or voluntary inheritors at all, and if s/he does not have a will, all their possessions are left to the Turkish State.
According to Turkish Law of Heritage, holding a right on the inheritance is based on either law or the declared will of the deceased. Legitimate inheritance is when the right is based on law; voluntary inheritance is when the right is based on the will (that is, when a written will or inheritance agreement is present).
In determining the holders of right in inheritance, the first condition is whether the deceased has declared his own wish (with a written Will)

Will may be prepared in three forms:

a)     Official Will

b)     Holographic Will

c)      Oral Will

a)     An official Will is the last wishes of a person of full capacity, which has been prepared before an official authority, namely by notary or Judge of peace court. (Civil Code.Art. 532) You are going have an official Will.

b)     Holographic Will is written by the deceased himself. With his own handwriting, indicating the place and the date, the testator may indicate his last wishes on a paper ( on wall, on leather, even on ice ). The testator must be at least 15 years old and mature in order to constitute a valid Will.(CC.Art.538)

c)      Oral Will which is called as “soldier will” in another form of Will.

You are going to prepare an official Will so that you don’t have to type/write anything within a format. It is not going to be a Holographic Will. If it was so, you would.

The procedure of the official Will is, as we told in the first mail :

Although the foreigner knows how to read or write in his/her language he/she is lacked to read or write in Turkish. There is a legal necessity that the will which is composed by the one that can read or write has to be given to the testator after being composed.

As, the foreigner cannot read the will that’s composed in Turkish, the law that should apply for a foreigner has to be same as the law that is applied for the one who cannot read or write. A foreigner has a benefit like this. This procedure will be like this:

The will that the foreigner composed will be translated in Turkish by the interpreter that the foreigners choose. The will that’s written will be read to the foreigner in his/her own language in front of the deponents. Foreigner will testify loudly in front of the deponents that the will includes his/her last and real wishes. The deponents will testify and sign all these procedures had done and they find the testator has ability to do this. The interpreter also has to sign the will.

Tags: Holographic Will, Last Will, Law of Succession, Law on International Special Rights and Procedures, official Will, Oral Will, Procedure in Turkish Law, Testament