The kaymakamlık, the district governor’s office, is the first door that comes to mind when an apostille is needed in Türkiye; the original of a court judgment, a criminal record extract or a certificate of inheritance is carried there, and the district office does not certify it. This page explains why the original of a judicial document is not apostilled at the district office, which door it belongs to, and why the translation in the same file still belongs to the district office. The mirror image of this problem, a notarial act taken to the judicial commission, has its own page on this site.
A judicial document returned by the district office
The Develi District Governor’s Office writes on its page that criminal record extracts obtained from the prosecutor’s office and judicial documents are not certified there, and the Onikişubat page assigns the original of a judicial document to the judicial commission. The sign reaching a foreign institution comes later and less directly: because the judgment could not be apostilled at the district office, it either travels without an apostille and is returned there, or the holder has the notarised translation apostilled and leaves the original bare, and the institution returns the file because the judgment itself carries no apostille. In all three cases what is missing is an apostille placed on the judgment’s own signature.
Competence follows the class of document
In Türkiye the power to issue apostilles is not held by a single authority. Circular 68/1 of the Ministry of Justice assigns judicial documents to the adli yargı adalet komisyonu başkanlığı, the judicial commission presidency at places with a high criminal court; the HCCH page for Türkiye lists governors and district governors for administrative documents. The signature on a court judgment belongs to a judge or a court clerk, and Circular 68/1 assigns judicial documents to the judicial commission, not to the district office. Article 5 of the Convention says the certificate attests a signature and a capacity; for that signature the designated authority is not the district office. The refusal is a redirection, not an objection.
Finding the judicial commission
The HCCH page for Türkiye places the judicial commission presidencies where the high criminal courts exist; not every district has such a court. If the court that gave the judgment is in a district without a high criminal court, which commission is competent is asked at the courthouse; this site’s survey found no official rule or single list giving that correspondence. The commission’s application procedure, processing time and what it asks of a person other than the holder could not be read on an official page either; the courthouse concerned should be asked before travelling.
One file, two doors: the original and its translation
What feeds the error is that two documents in the same file pass through two different doors. The Onikişubat District Governor’s Office separates them in writing: the original of a judicial document is apostilled by the judicial commission presidencies, its notarised translation by the provincial or district governor’s office. The apostille on the translation attests the notary’s signature, and as a notarial act it is obtained from the governor or district governor of any province. Where the receiving institution wants both, the sequence is this: the original is apostilled at the commission first, then the apostilled original is translated, the translation is certified by a notary, and if the receiving institution asks for it, a second apostille is obtained on the translation at the district office. The person at the district office is at the right door for that second document; the mistake is to slide the original across the same desk.
e-Apostil as the commission without a counter
For the original of a judicial document there is a second door with no physical desk. According to the official e-Apostil system, the criminal record extract and the court judgment are among the documents eligible for an electronic apostille; the apostille is applied by the Ministry of Justice, PTT, the Turkish postal operator, acts only as intermediary under article 22 of Law no. 6475, and the application is made from the holder’s own e-Devlet account. Those login details belong to the holder alone, and this site does not ask for them at any point. The electronic route carries a PTT service fee, published on the official page. The document is delivered electronically; the receiving institution is asked beforehand in what form it accepts an electronic apostille.
Translation of a judicial document starts after the commission
Where the receiving institution wants the apostille on the original, the translation comes after it. Once the commission has placed the certificate on the judgment, a yeminli tercüman, a sworn translator whose oath is on record at a Turkish notary, translates the judgment; the notary certifies the translation and, where needed, an apostille is placed on that certification at the governor’s office. Whether that translation also renders the commission’s certificate is for the receiving institution to say. On the e-Apostil route, how the electronic document is translated, from a printout or from the file, is not stated in the sources read for this site; the receiving institution is asked.