Instructing a Turkish Criminal Lawyer From Abroad: Consulate Vekâletname, Apostille and Who Can Sign It

Two separate things get confused after an arrest abroad: instructing a lawyer, and papering that instruction. Article 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CMK) settles the first. A suspect or accused may meet defence counsel vekâletname aranmaksızın — with no power of attorney — at any time, in conditions where what is said cannot be heard by others, and correspondence with counsel may not be monitored. A lawyer instructed by telephone at two in the morning can be at the police station long before any document exists.

The exception is narrow. Under CMK 154/2, for the offences defined in Chapters Four to Seven of the Fourth Part of the Second Book of the Penal Code — offences against state security, against the constitutional order, against national defence, and against state secrets and espionage — for offences within the scope of the Anti-Terror Law, and for drug manufacture and trafficking committed within the activity of an organisation, a judge may restrict a detainee's access to counsel for twenty-four hours on the prosecutor's application. No statement may be taken during those twenty-four hours.

What the vekâletname actually unlocks is paper. Article 46 of the Attorneys Act lets any lawyer inspect a case file without producing one, and the registry must comply with that request; but a lawyer who has not filed a vekâletname will not be given copies or photocopies of anything in it. Article 153 CMK gives registered defence counsel the right to examine the investigation file and to take copies free of charge.

That right can be restricted. On the prosecutor's application a judge may limit it where disclosure would endanger the purpose of the investigation, and only for a closed list of offences: intentional killing (TCK 81, 82, 83), sexual assault other than its first paragraph (102), child sexual abuse (103), drug manufacture and trafficking (188), forming an organisation to commit crime (220), state security offences (TCK 302, 303, 304, 307, 308), offences against the constitutional order (TCK 309 to 316), offences against state secrets and espionage (TCK 326 to 337), arms smuggling under Law 6136, banking embezzlement under Law 5411, and offences under the Anti-Smuggling Law 5607. Even then, CMK 153/3 keeps three items open: the record of the suspect's own statement, expert reports, and the records of any step he was entitled to attend. Once the court accepts the indictment, CMK 153/4 restores full access and free copies. The urgent move in the first hours is therefore a lawyer at the door of the interview room, not a notarised document; see what happens in the first 24 hours.

CMK 149/1 states that the suspect or accused may benefit from one or more defence counsel at every stage of the investigation and prosecution, and that if he has a legal representative, that person may also choose counsel for him. Article 11 of the Civil Code sets majority at eighteen. An adult with legal capacity has no legal representative in Turkish law, so that second limb reaches minors and adults under guardianship, and nobody else.

The consequence is blunt. A mother, a wife or a brother cannot appoint defence counsel for an adult detainee. A vekâletname they sign at a consulate names them as the client; it does not register the lawyer in the criminal file as his müdafi. What the family can do is retain the lawyer, agree the fee and pay it. The detainee's own signature does the rest, and in practice counsel meets him first under CMK 154 and takes the signature afterwards.

Where the detainee is a minor, the parent signs as legal representative and the consulate route below is the ordinary one. Where he is an adult already inside a prison, the signature is taken there: Article 83 of the Notaries Act allows a notary to perform an act outside the office where carrying it out in the office would cause delay or present difficulty, provided the reason is recorded in the papers.

Article 191 of the Notaries Act provides that in foreign countries notarial business is conducted by consuls, and Article 192 that the function is performed inside the consulate building. There is no postal, email or home-visit alternative. Whoever signs attends a Turkish consulate in person, with a passport.

Article 193 makes Articles 72 to 76 of the same Act applicable to consuls, and Article 74 is short: if the person concerned does not speak Turkish, a sworn interpreter is also present. The instrument is drawn up in Turkish, and a consulate will not simply take a signature on an English page. Book the appointment on that basis. The same principle runs through the case itself, where interpretation is a right rather than a courtesy — see interpreters in Turkish criminal proceedings.

The wording is not free-form either. The final paragraph of Article 56 of the Attorneys Act states that powers of attorney are of a single type for the whole of Türkiye, their form and content prepared by the Union of Turkish Bar Associations together with the Turkish Notaries Union. Ask counsel to send the text in advance, and bring his full name, bar, registration number and office address alongside the detainee's identity details.

Two points are worth settling before you go:

• Photograph. Article 93 of the Notaries Act Regulation makes a photograph compulsory for a listed set of acts — powers of attorney that by their nature require a land registry transaction, wills, marriage contracts, adoption, recognition of a child, and powers of attorney drawn for divorce proceedings. A criminal defence power of attorney is not on that list, but the same article allows the officer to require one where he considers it necessary. Carry two passport photographs.
• Substitution. Under Article 171 of the Attorneys Act a lawyer may share the work with, or pass it to, another lawyer only if the power of attorney grants tevkil authority; Article 56 then lets him issue that colleague a yetki belgesi, which has the force of a power of attorney. This matters the moment a detainee is transferred to a prison several hundred kilometres from Istanbul.

Where no Turkish consulate is within reach, the document is signed before a local notary and then made usable in Türkiye. For states party to the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention, to which Türkiye is a party, the local notary's signature is certified by an apostille issued by the competent authority of that country; the document is then translated into Turkish by a sworn translator and the translation notarised in Türkiye. Where the Convention does not apply, Article 195 of the Notaries Act supplies the older route: the signature and seal of the foreign authority on a notarial act properly executed abroad are authenticated by the Turkish consul.

Every route ends at the same last step. Article 27 of the Attorneys Act provides that authorities to which a lawyer submits a power of attorney may not accept one carrying no bar stamp or a deficient stamp; where necessary a ten-day period is given, and until the stamp is completed the power of attorney cannot be processed. Your lawyer attends to that in Türkiye.

None of this is the first move. The order that works is: establish where he is held, get counsel through the door under CMK 154, let file access follow, and sign the vekâletname when the appointment can be made properly rather than in a rush. Article 95 CMK, which requires a foreign detainee's consulate to be notified unless he objects in writing, is often how a family abroad first learns the location at all. The full sequence, from the first telephone call to the first prison visit, is set out in our guide for families of a detainee in Türkiye.