Trade compliance in Turkey means meeting Turkish export controls and UN-based asset freezes under Law No. 7262, while EU and US rules follow goods and money. Turkish trade law decides what a Turkish company may lawfully ship and to whom; the laws of its suppliers, its banks and its buyers decide whether anyone will deal with it at all.
Foreign manufacturers usually meet this subject from the wrong end. A routine order from a Turkish distributor arrives, the export department in Germany or the United States asks for an end-use certificate, the bank asks where the goods will finally be used, and a sale that looked purely commercial turns out to be a compliance file in three legal systems at once.
Export managers ask us first, what does a Turkish buyer need to provide before a European supplier can ship dual-use goods? Usually two things: a document approved by the Turkish Ministry of Trade (Ticaret Bakanlığı) confirming the import and its end use, and a contract clause promising that the goods will not travel on to a sanctioned destination. The first comes from Ankara. The second is required by EU law, not Turkish law, and that difference decides who carries the risk.
General counsel tend to ask next, do EU and US sanctions bind a company incorporated in Turkey? Not directly, and that is exactly why they matter so much. Turkish asset-freeze legislation is built on UN Security Council resolutions, yet a Turkish company that ignores EU or US measures can lose its suppliers, its correspondent banks and its access to dollars and euros. Legally optional, commercially compulsory: that is the position most Turkish importers actually work in.
A third question follows within days: when does a sale to Turkey need an export licence in Turkey as well? When the goods leave Turkey again and appear on the Wassenaar dual-use list or the Australia Group precursor list, or when there is reason to suspect a weapons-of-mass-destruction end use even for goods on no list at all. The second limb is the one exporters miss.
The last question is the one boards ask: who answers if the goods end up in Russia? Everyone in the chain can, but not under the same law. The Turkish buyer answers under its contract and, where a UN-listed party is involved, under Law No. 7262; the EU or US supplier answers under its own export-control and sanctions rules; and the bank in between answers to its regulators. The paperwork that protects one party rarely protects the others.
Oznur & Partners is an Istanbul law firm that advises foreign manufacturers, Turkish importers and their banks on sanctions exposure, export-control documents and the contracts that allocate both. The firm is recognised by Legal 500 EMEA and Chambers & Partners for its corporate immigration practice and works in English, Russian, Chinese and Turkish. This page sets out the Turkish legal framework and the points where foreign rules enter it.
⚖️ What does trade compliance in Turkey cover?
Trade compliance in Turkey covers four overlapping sets of rules: Turkish export controls on dual-use and sensitive goods, Turkish import documentation for controlled goods, Turkish asset-freeze obligations based on UN Security Council resolutions, and the foreign sanctions and export-control rules that reach Turkish companies through contracts, banks and the origin of the goods. A transaction can be lawful under one set and blocked under another.
Commercial law sits underneath all four. The Turkish Commercial Code (Türk Ticaret Kanunu) governs the company, its books and its contracts, and most compliance failures surface as contract disputes: a supplier suspends deliveries, a buyer withholds payment, a bank returns a transfer. The legal question is usually not whether a rule exists but which party agreed to bear the consequence when it is applied.
This page deals with compliance before and around the shipment. Disputes with Turkish customs over duties, penalties and post-clearance audits are covered by our customs lawyers in Turkey page. Blocked or returned payments are covered under frozen bank accounts in Turkey, and the anti-money-laundering duties of Turkish obliged parties under MASAK compliance.
⚖️ Do EU and US sanctions apply to a Turkish company?
As a matter of Turkish law, no; as a matter of commercial reality, very often yes. Turkey’s asset-freeze statutes implement sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council: Law No. 6415 on the Prevention of the Financing of Terrorism (Terörizmin Finansmanının Önlenmesi Hakkında Kanun) for the terrorism-related lists, and Law No. 7262 on the Prevention of the Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (Kitle İmha Silahlarının Yayılmasının Finansmanının Önlenmesine İlişkin Kanun) for the proliferation lists.
EU and US measures reach a Turkish company by other routes. An EU supplier must impose contractual restrictions on its Turkish buyer. A US-origin component carries US re-export rules wherever it is shipped. A bank that clears euros or dollars applies the screening its own regulators demand. None of these is a Turkish legal obligation, and each of them can stop a transaction as effectively as one.
A foreign designation does not freeze assets in Turkey automatically. Article 6 of Law No. 6415 allows a foreign state to request a freeze of assets located in Turkey; the request is examined by a Turkish evaluation commission, decided by the President, and considered in light of reciprocity. Until such a decision is published, a person listed only by the EU or the US is not subject to a Turkish freeze, but may already be unable to bank in Turkey.
The practical consequence for a Turkish importer is that two compliance questions must be answered separately. The first is legal: does Turkish law prohibit this transaction or require a permit? The second is commercial: will the supplier, the bank and the buyer’s own counterparties accept it? Confusing the two is how companies end up legally compliant and still unable to trade.
Your supplier is asking for an end-use certificate or a new sanctions clause? Read it before you sign.
Send us the request and the draft clause; we will tell you what Turkish law requires, what it does not, and what the clause commits your company to.
⚖️ Why an ordinary sale to Turkey becomes an export-control file
What looks like a simple sale to a Turkish distributor is, from the exporter’s regulator’s point of view, a question about where the goods will be in a year. Turkey sits between the EU, Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Middle East, and controlled goods sold into Turkey are assessed against every place they could plausibly go next, not only against Turkey itself.
That is why the documents requested of a Turkish buyer often look disproportionate to the order. An end-use certificate for a batch of industrial sensors, a re-export clause for spare parts, a questionnaire about the buyer’s own customers: each answers a question the supplier’s authorities will ask later. The Turkish company that supplies them carefully is not proving its innocence; it is giving its supplier the record it will need.
Anticipation is cheaper than explanation. A distributor agreement that already allocates sanctions risk, a customer file that already shows who the end users are and an internal rule on which destinations need sign-off turn a supplier’s sudden compliance request into a routine reply. Without them, the same request can hold a shipment at the factory gate for weeks while the facts are rebuilt.
Companies entering Turkey through a new subsidiary should build these rules into the entity from the start. Our pages on legal consultancy for European investors in Turkey and legal consultancy for Chinese investors in Turkey cover the entry structures into which a trade-compliance programme has to fit.
⚖️ Turkish sanctions law: UN-based asset freezes under Laws No. 6415 and 7262
Law No. 7262, adopted on 27 December 2020 and published in the Official Gazette (Resmî Gazete) on 31 December 2020, implements UN Security Council sanctions on the financing of weapons-of-mass-destruction proliferation. Under its Article 3, the assets in Turkey of persons and entities listed by the Security Council, and of persons acting for them or controlled by them, are frozen by a Presidential decision published in the Official Gazette and applied without delay.
Law No. 6415, published in the Official Gazette on 16 February 2013, does the same for persons listed under UN Security Council resolutions 1267 (1999), 1988 (2011), 1989 (2011) and 2253 (2015). Article 5 of Law No. 6415 provides that the Presidential decision is published in the Official Gazette and applied without delay. The Financial Crimes Investigation Board (Mali Suçları Araştırma Kurulu, MASAK) publishes the resulting lists on its website.
Law No. 7262 also prohibits more than the holding of assets. Under Article 2, providing or collecting funds of any kind for listed persons and entities is prohibited, listed persons may not open representative offices or branches in Turkey, and the transfer of prohibited items and technology linked to nuclear and ballistic missile programmes is prohibited. The prohibitions follow the scope of the relevant Security Council resolutions.
“Persons who fail to implement a decision taken under Article 3 on the freezing of assets, or who show negligence or delay in implementing it, shall be sentenced to imprisonment from six months to two years or a judicial fine, unless the act constitutes another offence requiring a heavier penalty.”
Source: Law No. 7262 on the Prevention of the Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Article 5/3. Unofficial translation.
Turkish original: “3 üncü madde hükümlerine göre malvarlığının dondurulmasıyla ilgili alınan kararın gereğini yerine getirmeyen veya yerine getirmekte ihmal veya gecikme gösteren kişilere, fiil daha ağır cezayı gerektiren başka bir suç oluşturmadığı takdirde, altı aydan iki yıla kadar hapis veya adli para cezası verilir.”
Law No. 7262 Article 5/3 punishes delay as well as refusal: an individual who implements a freeze late faces the same range of six months to two years as one who never implements it. Under Article 5/7, a legal entity whose organ or representative commits the offence can additionally receive an administrative fine of 10,000 to 2,000,000 Turkish lira, imposed by the commission chaired by the President of MASAK.
Holders of frozen assets carry reporting duties as well. MASAK’s guidance on asset freezes states that institutions holding assets of a listed person report them to MASAK within 7 days of the request, that increases after the freeze are also frozen and reported within 7 days, and that persons holding no such assets have no reporting obligation. Banks are the most common holders, but trading companies with receivables or goods in their possession can be holders too.
⚖️ Exporting dual-use goods from Turkey: permit, control lists and the catch-all rule
Exports of dual-use and sensitive goods from Turkey are governed by the Communiqué on the Control of Exports of Dual-Use and Sensitive Goods (Export 2003/12), published in the Official Gazette on 2 December 2003. Goods on the Wassenaar Arrangement dual-use list and on the Australia Group chemical precursors list require an export permit before they leave Turkey, as listed on the Ministry of Trade’s export legislation page.
Under Article 2 of Communiqué 2003/12, the permit application is filed through the General Secretariat of the Istanbul Mineral and Metals Exporters’ Association (İstanbul Maden ve Metaller İhracatçı Birlikleri), with documents describing the technical characteristics and uses of the goods and an end-use certificate obtained from the foreign importer. The permit itself is issued by the export directorate of the Ministry of Trade, which consults the relevant agencies before deciding.
Article 6 of Communiqué 2003/12 extends the permit requirement to goods on neither list. A permit is required where the end user is suspected of developing weapons of mass destruction, where the exporter declares that the goods may be used for that purpose, or where national or international security or human rights could be endangered. An exporter that knows of such a risk cannot rely on the absence of the goods from the control lists.
Chemicals listed in the annexes to the Chemical Weapons Convention follow a separate communiqué. Under Communiqué Export 2017/7, chemicals in Schedule 1 may be exported only for permitted purposes and only to States Parties, and chemicals in Schedule 2 may not be exported to states that are not parties to the Convention. Chemical distributors re-exporting from Turkey need to check both communiqués against the same product list.
Military goods sit outside the dual-use communiqué. Weapons, ammunition and military equipment are controlled under separate defence-industry legislation and their own list of items, with a different authority and procedure. A product that is not military on its face but has been designed or modified for military use should be classified before the first shipment, because both the route and the authority change.
⚖️ Importing controlled goods into Turkey: import certificate, end-use certificate and delivery verification
A foreign supplier exporting controlled goods to Turkey will usually need one of two Turkish documents from its buyer, both handled by the Directorate General of Imports of the Ministry of Trade (İthalat Genel Müdürlüğü). The International Import Certificate (İthal Şahadetnamesi), based on Article 13 of the Import Regulation (İthalat Yönetmeliği), is used for military goods and critical materials controlled for non-proliferation purposes; the End-Use Certificate (Nihai Kullanım Sertifikası) is used for dual-use materials and technologies.
The Ministry of Trade’s page on import certificates and end-use certificates describes the sequence. The Turkish importer applies before the import, at the exporter’s request; the Ministry approves the import certificate or registers the end-use certificate; the importer sends the approved document to the exporter; and the exporter then applies for its own export licence in its own country. Applications are made online by an authorised company officer with an electronic signature.
Delivery is confirmed after the goods arrive. Once the import is completed, the importer obtains a Delivery Verification Certificate (Tesellüm Teyidi Vesikası) from the competent Turkish customs office, and that certificate is forwarded to the authorities of the exporting country. For the exporter, the delivery verification closes the file opened by its own licence; for the Turkish importer, it is the record that the goods arrived where it said they would.
Neither document replaces customs formalities. The Ministry states that the import certificate and the end-use certificate do not substitute for customs procedures, and that imports of used or refurbished goods require any separate permits on their own. The documentary procedure is reissued each year by communiqué, so the current version should be checked at the time of each application rather than relied on from an earlier file.
Re-export from Turkey of goods imported under these documents is restricted. Where the goods are to be shipped on to a third country, the Turkish importer must obtain a permit document from the original exporter and submit it to the Directorate General of Imports. A Turkish distributor that sells on to a customer abroad without that document breaches the commitment its supplier relied on, whatever the commercial terms of the onward sale.
⚖️ Can I sell to Russia through Turkey?
Turkish law does not impose a general prohibition on trade with Russia, and Turkish sanctions legislation does not implement the EU or US measures against Russia. That answer is legally accurate and practically incomplete. Goods of EU or US origin, goods paid for through EU or US banking channels and goods covered by a supplier’s contractual re-export ban carry those foreign rules with them into any onward sale from Turkey.
The EU’s rules are the most direct. Under Article 12g of Council Regulation (EU) No 833/2014, EU exporters selling certain goods to buyers in third countries must contractually prohibit re-export to Russia and re-export for use in Russia. The European Commission’s guidance on the “no re-export to Russia” clause lists the partner countries exempted from that requirement, and Turkey is not among them.
Diversion through Turkey is the scenario regulators look for. A Turkish company that buys EU-origin goods, signs a re-export prohibition and then sells the goods to a trader whose customers are in Russia exposes itself to contractual penalties, to termination by its supplier, and to being cut off by banks whose screening identifies the pattern. None of that requires a Turkish prohibition, and none of it is avoided by the absence of one.
The decisive record is the customer file. A Turkish distributor that can show, for each sale of covered goods, who the buyer was, where the goods were delivered and what end use was declared is in a defensible position. A distributor that cannot is, in practice, presumed to be part of the diversion chain. Russian-speaking investors operating in Turkey will find related guidance on our Russian investors in Turkey page.
⚖️ The “no re-export to Russia” clause in contracts with Turkish buyers
EU exporters must include the clause in contracts concluded on or after 19 December 2023, with effect from 20 March 2024, according to the European Commission’s guidance on Article 12g. Contracts concluded before 19 December 2023 had a transition period until 19 December 2024 or until their expiry, whichever came first, and any performance from 1 January 2025 requires the clause to have been added.
The covered goods are limited to four groups listed in the guidance: aviation-related goods and jet fuel in Annexes XI and XX of Regulation 833/2014, firearms in Annex XXXV and in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 258/2012, and common high priority items in Annex XL. A Turkish buyer of goods outside these annexes may still be asked to sign a re-export clause, but the request then comes from the supplier’s own policy rather than from Article 12g.
The Commission’s guidance leaves the wording to the parties but requires adequate remedies. Its template prohibits sale or re-export to Russia or for use in Russia, requires the buyer to do everything it reasonably can to stop downstream resellers from frustrating the prohibition, treats a breach as a material breach of an essential element of the contract, and requires the buyer to provide information within 2 weeks of a request. The remedies it suggests include termination and a financial penalty.
A Turkish buyer signing the clause should read three parts closely before agreeing. The first is the scope of goods, which should match the annexes and not extend by default to the whole product range. The second is the penalty, usually a percentage of the contract value or of the price of the goods, whichever is higher. The third is the information duty, which a Turkish company must be able to meet without breaching its own confidentiality commitments to customers.
Governing law and dispute resolution decide how the clause will be enforced against a Turkish company. A clause governed by a foreign law and subject to foreign arbitration will be enforced in Turkey through the recognition of the award. Our Turkish contract lawyer page explains how supply and distribution contracts with Turkish counterparties are structured so that the remedies chosen in the clause can actually be enforced in Turkey.
⚖️ How do I check a Turkish buyer before shipping?
Screening a Turkish counterparty starts with the lists that have legal effect in Turkey and then moves to the lists that matter to the supplier and the bank. The minimum file for a first shipment of controlled goods covers 4 checks: the counterparty’s identity and ownership, the Turkish freeze lists, the foreign sanctions and export-control lists relevant to the goods, and the declared end user and end use.
- Identity and ownership: the Turkish trade registry record, the current shareholders and the persons authorised to sign, including any foreign parent.
- Turkish freeze lists: the lists published by MASAK under Laws No. 6415 and 7262, checked for the company, its shareholders and its managers.
- Foreign lists: the EU, US and UK lists that apply to the supplier, the goods or the payment route, checked for the same persons.
- End use: a written statement of the end user, the place of use and the intended use, consistent with any end-use certificate approved in Turkey.
- Red flags: payment from a third party, delivery to a free zone or forwarder without explanation, or an order profile that does not match the buyer’s business.
Ownership matters as much as names. Law No. 7262 Article 3 reaches assets of persons and entities directly or indirectly controlled by a listed party and of persons acting on its behalf, so a Turkish company with a clean name but a listed shareholder can still be caught. Screening the beneficial owners, not only the contracting entity, is what turns a list check into a defensible decision.
Screening is repeated, not done once. Lists change, shareholders change and a buyer’s customers change. For distributors with a stable customer base, a review before each new end user and an annual review of the whole file is a practical minimum; for buyers acquired through an investment, the review belongs in the legal due diligence in Turkey before closing.
⚖️ When should I call a lawyer about a sanctions or export-control question?
A lawyer should be involved before the first shipment of controlled goods and whenever a counterparty’s request changes who carries the legal risk. The 6 situations below are where a short legal review usually saves weeks: each one either creates an obligation under Turkish law, or signs a Turkish company up to foreign obligations through a contract.
- A supplier asks for an import certificate or end-use certificate for the first time.
- A supplier sends a new contract or amendment with a re-export clause and a penalty.
- A bank returns a payment or asks for end-use information about a specific shipment.
- A customer asks to deliver controlled goods onward to a third country or to a free zone.
- A shareholder, customer or supplier appears on a freeze list published in Turkey.
- A product’s classification is unclear between civilian, dual-use and military.
We work remotely for clients outside Turkey. Documents are reviewed from scans, applications to the Ministry of Trade are prepared with the Turkish importer, and contract amendments are negotiated in English. Where we represent a client before Turkish authorities or courts, we act under a power of attorney signed before a notary abroad and apostilled; our guide to the power of attorney in Turkey sets out the format.
Payment problems are the most frequent trigger in practice. Where a transfer has already been returned or a Turkish account blocked, the work moves to the bank file and, where relevant, to MASAK; our pages on banking and finance in Turkey and frozen bank accounts cover those 2 tracks.
⚖️ Conclusion: the record that travels with the goods
Trade compliance in Turkey is rarely decided by a single prohibition. It is decided by the record a company can show when a supplier, a bank or an authority asks where the goods went and why. Turkish law sets the floor through Laws No. 6415 and 7262 and the export and import communiqués; the foreign rules that follow the goods set the height of the wall.
The companies that trade without interruption are not the ones with the fewest obligations. They are the ones whose contracts, certificates and customer files already answer the next question before it is asked.
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Our international trade lawyers in Istanbul advise foreign suppliers and Turkish importers on end-use certificates, re-export clauses, freeze-list screening and payments held on sanctions grounds, before the shipment and when a transaction has already stopped.