A Cook Islands file holds a detail that can surprise an applicant in Türkiye: a country with its own row in the HCCH status table does not appear in the country selection list of Türkiye’s e-Apostil system. This page is for offices in the Cook Islands receiving Turkish papers and for people in Türkiye dealing with the Cook Islands. It covers the 2005 record, the difference between the two lists, the country’s position outside the UN and Hague Conference membership lists, its single certifying ministry and the place of translation.
The Cook Islands’ 2004 accession and 30 April 2005
The Cook Islands deposited their instrument of accession on 13 July 2004; the HCCH table shows 30 April 2005. Coming about nineteen years after Türkiye’s 1985 date, the accession gave Türkiye a right to object under article 12, which Türkiye did not use. The Cook Islands have objected to no later accession and are not named in the Kosovo note. The start date between the two is the Cook Islands’ own.
Why the Cook Islands do not show on the Turkish e-Apostil list
The e-Apostil country list read by this site on 21 September 2026 has 125 entries, and the Cook Islands are not among them. Bangladesh, Bolivia, Rwanda and Eswatini are missing too, while Burkina Faso, which has no row in the HCCH table, is listed. The e-Apostil selection list does not match the HCCH table one to one and is not a source for a country’s Convention status; the status box at the top of this page is printed from HCCH data. What absence from the list means in practice for an e-Apostil application was not found in this site’s survey; that question is for the official system’s own contact channel. e-Apostil covers only six document types in any case.
Outside the UN and Hague Conference lists, inside the Convention table
The Cook Islands do not appear on the United Nations list of Member States, nor on the Hague Conference list of Members. Yet the Convention status table gives them their own row, date and competent authority page. The three lists are separate records, and none is read as a condition of another. A Turkish institution assessing a Cook Islands document therefore looks to the HCCH status table. The arrangements governing the Cook Islands’ relations with other states were not covered by the sources read for this site and are not described here.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, and New Zealand dollars
According to the HCCH authority page, updated on 19 January 2022, the certifying power in the Cook Islands lies with a single ministry: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration. No second authority by document type or court registry is notified. The notable point of the fee note is its currency: New Zealand dollars, as a single item per certificate; the amount is not copied here. The e-APP chart of 13 August 2026 has no Cook Islands row, and the authority page gives no online register. The Cook Islands have not acceded to ETS 063, CIEC 16 or CIEC 17.
Turkish documents for the Cook Islands and the order of translation
For a diploma or civil registry extract to be used in the Cook Islands, a valilik or kaymakamlık, the provincial or district governor’s office, places the physical certificate. A power of attorney, a signature declaration and a notarised translation are notarial acts; they too are certified by a governor or district governor, and the place of application does not depend on the notary’s province. For the original of a court judgment the competent body is the adli yargı adalet komisyonu başkanlığı. If a translation is made in Türkiye and enters the chain with a notary’s certification, the order is translation, notarial certification, then the certificate on that certification; on that route the certificate confirms the notary’s signature, not the correctness of the translation. Which language institutions in the Cook Islands want for a translation of a Turkish document was not found in this site’s survey. For a Cook Islands document, the Turkish translation is made in Türkiye and certified by a notary; whether the certificate is translated is decided by the receiving Turkish institution. A translation office renders the text and has no influence on the official system’s country list.