Cross-border legal coordination (China–Turkey)

Turchina Group is the bilingual coordination layer between Chinese clients and Turkish legal services, not a law firm itself. The legal work is performed by qualified lawyers in each jurisdiction. Our coordination covers: (1) bilingual contract drafting and review, carried out by the Chinese and Turkish lawyers we work with; (2) forum-selection analysis for disputes; (3) project management for recognition and enforcement of Chinese judgments in Turkey; (4) trademark, patent, and copyright filings at Turkpatent, handled by your Turkish counsel; (5) cross-border evidence collection and Hague-Convention service of process; (6) multi-jurisdiction compliance mapping (PIPL, KVKK, GDPR).

Both are civil-law jurisdictions but with very different roots. China's system relies on the Civil Code reinforced by judicial interpretations from the Supreme People's Court, with significant administrative discretion. Turkey blends a Swiss-influenced civil code with overlaid EU directives. The same clause can mean opposite things on either side, force majeure, liquidated damages, and governing-law clauses are typical traps. Our standard practice is to have every contract reviewed by both Chinese counsel and Turkish counsel; single-sided review is the most common reason we are later asked to clean up a cross-border dispute.

Through the recognition-and-enforcement procedure under Turkish private international law. Steps: (1) confirm the Chinese judgment is final and binding; (2) prepare the recognition petition with the original judgment, sworn Turkish translation, and proof of finality from the Chinese court; (3) Turkish counsel files with the competent Turkish court, usually the Civil Court of First Instance in the district where the debtor resides or holds assets; (4) the Turkish court reviews limited grounds for refusal, it does not re-litigate the merits; (5) the judgment becomes enforceable. Reciprocity between China and Turkey exists in practice. Typical timeline: 6 to 12 months. We coordinate the project; Turkish counsel does the filing and any hearings.

For cross-border China-Turkey disputes we usually recommend arbitration over court litigation, typically ICC (Paris or Singapore seat), HKIAC (Hong Kong), or CIETAC (Beijing). The reasons: arbitration is faster (12 to 24 months versus 3 to 7 years for court), confidential, easier to enforce under the New York Convention (170+ countries, including both China and Turkey), and a tribunal can include arbitrators qualified in both jurisdictions. We help you decide the seat, rules, and arbitrator panel together with your counsel.

Turkey is a first-to-file jurisdiction, whoever files first owns the trademark. The biggest risk for Chinese companies is a local squatter registering your trademark before you enter the market, then demanding payment to release it. Our standard protection: through your Turkish counsel, file a Turkish trademark at Turkpatent before any market entry, cover the relevant Nice Classification classes, and add an EU trademark if you sell into the EU. Copyright, patent, and trade-dress registrations follow the same pattern. Typical official fee: USD 300 to 1,200 per trademark class.

Yes, at the advisory and coordination level. The Turkish KVKK (Kişisel Verilerin Korunması Kanunu, Law 6698) parallels GDPR with Turkish-specific obligations: data-controller registration in VERBİS, mandatory data-processing inventories, breach notification, and data-localisation triggers for sensitive data. For Chinese companies operating both in China (CSL, PIPL) and in Turkey, we map the three regimes (PIPL + KVKK + GDPR where EU customers are involved) and design a unified compliance program with the lawyers handling the formal filings. This is where most foreign-invested Turkish operations find themselves unintentionally non-compliant.