This page concentrates on Syrian files that run inbound: a birth record presented to a civil registry, a marriage record entered in a family register, a secondary school or university diploma submitted for recognition. None of these papers is expected to carry an apostille, since Syria has no row in the HCCH status table. What the Turkish clerk expects is a legalisation chain, and the Turkish translation comes at the very end of it. This page follows the inbound document and gives the outbound one a single section.
Why a Turkish clerk looks for stamps, not an apostille, on Syrian papers
The status table names only states that have completed a Convention formality, and Syria is not among them; the HCCH Members page does not list Syria either. A Turkish official therefore does not search a Syrian record for an apostille. What the official needs to see is that the signature of the Syrian authority has been attested, either by a Turkish mission or by the Syrian mission in Türkiye plus a Turkish certification on top. Syria has not acceded to ETS 063, CIEC 16 or CIEC 17, so birth and marriage records enjoy no separate exemption and follow the same chain as a diploma.
Syrian birth and marriage records at the nüfus müdürlüğü
The Ministry’s sheet allows two methods. In the first, the record is legalised at the Turkish mission in Syria before it leaves and arrives ready. In the second, the record arrives unlegalised, is stamped at the Syrian mission in Türkiye, and that stamp is certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs if the mission is in Ankara or by the governor’s office of the province where the mission sits. Which of the two routes is open at a given date, and in which city the Syrian mission operates, was not confirmed on this site; the holder learns that from the mission. The nüfus müdürlüğü, the civil registry office, then processes the record together with a notarised Turkish translation.
A Syrian degree in a recognition file: translate after the stamps
A diploma and a transcript follow one of the same two methods. The point to watch is the scope of the translation, and no source read for this page fixes it: whether the Turkish version has to render the stamps and signatures added during legalisation, or only the text of the diploma, is asked of the recognition office. Legalising first and translating afterwards keeps both answers open; the translator signs before the notary, and the notary certifies that signature and nothing more.
A notarised Arabic translation is not legalisation
One error on a Syrian file is presenting an unlegalised record with nothing but a notarised Turkish translation. A Turkish notary attests the translator’s signature; the notary neither can nor does attest the signature of the Syrian official who drew up the record. Only a Turkish mission abroad, or the Syrian mission in Türkiye followed by the Ministry or a governor’s office, does that.
Turkish documents for Syria: the same four links reversed
A power of attorney, a civil registry extract or a diploma travelling from Türkiye to Syria follows the order in the Ministry’s sheet: an Arabic translation certified by a notary, certification of the notary’s signature at the governor’s office of the place of issue, and certification of the governor’s signature at the Legalisation Unit. This place rule comes from the undated information sheet of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs; whether the 2024 amendment of article 199 of the Notaries Law also covers this certification was not verified in this site’s survey. The stamp of the Syrian mission comes after those three; the Ministry’s sheet does not list it, and the French MEAE table describes such a second consular stamp as a double légalisation. A document already carrying an apostille cannot enter this chain, since the Ministry does not legalise apostilled papers.
Three things this page does not know about Syria
First, the documents the Syrian mission asks for, its processing time and its fee; these were not looked into and are obtained from the mission. Second, whether a Syrian institution accepts a translation of a Turkish document in a language other than Arabic. Third, which Syrian authority has to pre-certify a Syrian record before either legalisation method; that answer sits with the issuing office and the mission. A translation office answers none of these three; it renders Arabic into Turkish, signs before the notary and leaves the chain to the holder.