Making a Will in Turkey as a Foreigner

If you own property in Turkey and you're not a Turkish citizen, dying without a valid Turkish will means the Turkish Civil Code decides who gets your assets — and the default intestate rules produce outcomes that blindside foreign families. Unmarried partners inherit nothing. Distant biological relatives you haven't spoken to in decades may receive a share. The fix is straightforward and costs less than a restaurant dinner for two.

Why a Turkish Will Matters for Expats

Turkey applies Turkish succession law to all immovable property (real estate, land) located in Turkey, regardless of the owner's nationality. A will you made in the UK, US, or Australia may cover your worldwide assets, but when it comes to your Turkish apartment, Turkish courts have the final say.

A foreign will can be recognized in Turkey through a court enforcement proceeding (tenfiz), but this adds months of delay, translation costs, and the risk that Turkish courts override provisions that violate reserved-portion rules. A Turkish-language will drafted and notarized in Turkey avoids all of this.

Three Types of Valid Wills in Turkey

The Turkish Civil Code recognizes three formats:

Official will (resmi vasiyetname). Drafted at a Turkish notary office with two witnesses present. The notary reads the will aloud, the testator confirms it, everyone signs. This is the most common and most legally robust option. Cost: roughly 1,000-2,000 TL (under $100 USD at 2026 exchange rates).

Handwritten will (el yazılı vasiyetname). The testator writes the entire will by hand — typed documents don't qualify. It must include the full date (day, month, year) and the testator's signature. No notary or witnesses required. Free to create, but easier to challenge in court because there's no independent verification of the testator's mental capacity or identity.

Oral will (sözlü vasiyetname). Only valid in emergencies — imminent death, war, epidemic, or natural disaster — when the testator physically cannot access a notary or write. Two witnesses hear the testator's wishes and must submit a written record to the nearest court within one month. The oral will expires one month after the emergency conditions end if the testator survives. This is rarely relevant for estate planning.

What a Turkish Will Can and Cannot Do

It can: designate specific heirs (including unmarried partners), allocate specific assets to specific people, appoint an estate executor, exclude certain statutory heirs from the disposable portion, and include conditions on inheritance.

It cannot: override the reserved portions (saklı pay). Turkish law guarantees minimum shares to:

• Children — 1/2 of their statutory intestate share
• Parents — 1/4 of their statutory share
• Surviving spouse — Equal to their full statutory share

Everything above the reserved portions is the "disposable portion" — the part you can freely allocate in your will. For a married person with children, the disposable portion is typically 1/4 of the total estate.

The Process at a Turkish Notary

Making an official will at a notary takes one appointment:

1. Bring your passport (or Turkish ID if you have one), your Turkish tax number, and two witnesses who are not beneficiaries of the will
2. Tell the notary what you want — they draft the will in Turkish legal language
3. If you don't speak Turkish, a sworn translator must be present and the will is drafted bilingually
4. The notary reads the will aloud, you confirm it reflects your intentions, everyone signs
5. The notary registers the will in the National Will Registry (Ölüme Bağlı Tasarruflar Kütüğü)

The registry registration is critical — it ensures the will is found when probate opens. Without it, heirs may not know a will exists, and the estate gets divided under intestate rules by default.

Updating or Revoking a Turkish Will

A new will automatically revokes any earlier will to the extent they conflict. You can also explicitly revoke a will by making a new one, by destroying the original (for handwritten wills), or by filing a revocation declaration at the notary.

If your circumstances change — marriage, divorce, new children, property purchases — update the will. Turkish law doesn't automatically revoke a will upon marriage or divorce the way some common-law jurisdictions do.

The Dual-Will Strategy

Many estate planning lawyers recommend that expats with assets in multiple countries maintain separate wills for each jurisdiction: a Turkish will covering Turkish real estate, and a home-country will covering everything else. Each will should explicitly state that it covers only assets in its jurisdiction and does not revoke the other.

This avoids the enforcement (tenfiz) process entirely — Turkish courts work with the Turkish will, home-country courts work with theirs, and neither needs to recognize a foreign document.

The Someone Died in Turkey guide covers both pre-death estate planning and post-death settlement for foreign nationals, including the exact POA requirements for managing Turkish assets from abroad.

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