How to Enter the Türkiye Market: Legal Structure and Setup Steps
Türkiye is an efficient market-entry hub: a large domestic market, customs access, and a business environment where a properly structured setup can scale. The challenge is not “can we register a company?”, it’s choosing the right legal vehicle, building a compliant paper trail, and avoiding early operational mistakes that later become tax, banking, or enforcement problems.
Market-Entry Models
You usually have three market-entry models:
Turkish company (subsidiary)
A Turkish company is a separate legal person under Turkish law. It signs contracts, hires staff, opens local bank accounts, invoices customers, and carries its own compliance and recordkeeping obligations. The corporate type you choose affects governance flexibility, investor entry/exit mechanics, and (in some cases) sector-specific expectations. It is typically a Limited Liability Company (Ltd. Şti.) or Joint Stock Company (A.Ş.).
Branch office (of a foreign company)
A branch is a Türkiye-facing extension of the foreign company, legally connected to the overseas head office. Depending on the commercial context, this can simplify some group-structure decisions, but it can also increase sensitivity around documentation (head office resolutions, apostille/legalization, translation chain) and risk allocation (because counterparties and authorities may trace obligations back to the head office).
No entity in Türkiye (contract-based entry)
This model typically relies on a distributor, agent, or strategic partner, and is often used for early-stage testing. It can be a fast way to test demand without registering locally, but it usually limits control over invoicing, after-sales responsibilities, and compliance positioning in Türkiye.
Company vs Branch: What Matters in Practice
Legal personality & contracting
A Turkish company typically signs and performs contracts in its own name. A branch is commonly understood as the foreign company operating in Türkiye through a local establishment, which can shape how counterparties and institutions view documentation, authority, and risk.
Governance & scalability
A Turkish company is usually the more flexible platform for building local operations (hiring, local management, local partnerships, and potential future investors). A branch can fit when you want to operate under a single overseas corporate identity and keep tight central control, provided you maintain strong authority and documentation discipline.
Common use-cases
A Turkish company is often chosen for long-term operations with recurring local invoicing, distribution networks, after-sales/service responsibilities, and warehousing. A branch is often used for a narrower footprint, project-driven activity, or where group policy prefers operating under the foreign company’s name.
Decision shortcut
If you plan to build a long-term commercial footprint (people, contracts, recurring invoicing), a Turkish company is usually the cleaner operational platform. If your footprint is narrow and controlled, a branch may work (if you accept the added documentation and compliance discipline).
Key Terms and Official Channels
Most foreign founders struggle not because steps are impossible, but because they don’t know what the words mean.
MERSİS
A central digital registry system used for company/branch establishment workflows and corporate registry processes. Many formation steps and corporate changes are routed through MERSİS.
Trade Registry & Chambers
The Trade Registry is where your company/branch becomes legally effective through registration. In practice, submissions and appointments often run through the relevant Chamber/Registry workflow.
Notary, sworn translation, apostille/legalization
Foreign documents usually must pass a chain: proper corporate resolution → apostille/legalization (as applicable) → sworn translation → notarization. Missing one link can stop the entire process.
UETS (national e-notification)
Türkiye uses an official electronic notification system for many legal and administrative notices. Missing an e-notification can create serious procedural consequences.
KEP (registered e-mail)
A legally recognized “registered e-mail” channel used in formal commercial communications and evidence-grade correspondence.
Tax Office (verification visit)
A practical step many businesses face: tax authorities may verify the address and operational facts. Planning your address setup with this in mind prevents early friction.
SMMM (certified public accountant)
Your accountant is not a “nice-to-have.” A Turkish company typically needs structured accounting, tax filings, and e-transformation processes managed by a professional.
A Step-by-step Roadmap
Below is the typical setup sequence for establishing a company or branch in Türkiye. Some steps are always required; others depend on shareholder nationality/structure, sector, and local institutional practice.
Phase 1: Pre-setup decisions
Start by locking the foundations: the legal vehicle, what you will actually do in Türkiye, and who will hold signature authority. If you get these wrong, everything downstream becomes expensive to fix.
Choose the entry vehicle: Turkish company vs branch.
Define scope: sales, distribution, warehousing, service, e-commerce, R&D, representation.
Run an early sector check: licensing/permits, product rules, data obligations, consumer/ad rules.
Determine signatories: who will represent the entity and under what limits.
Phase 2: Documentation & formation file
This phase is mostly paperwork discipline. For foreign shareholders, the critical risk is breaking the apostille/translation/notary chain.
You typically prepare corporate documents (shareholders, managers/directors, powers, resolutions) and, where applicable, foreign documents (apostille/legalization + sworn translation + notarization).
You then produce the “formation texts,” which differ by structure:
Turkish company: articles of association / establishment documents.
Branch: head office decisions + branch establishment texts + appointment of the branch representative.
Phase 3: Registration with the Trade Registry
Registration is the “birth moment” of the entity. Practically, the workflow often runs through MERSİS and the Trade Registry filing procedure.
At the end of this phase, you collect the registry outputs you will use everywhere else (registration proofs and representation/signature records).
Phase 4: Tax & operational onboarding
Once registered, the goal is to become operational without leaving compliance gaps.
This typically includes tax onboarding (flow depends on facts), address verification/yoklama where applied, bank onboarding (often the most variable point for foreign-owned structures), and accounting onboarding with an SMMM. If e-document requirements apply (e-invoice/e-ledger), treat them as part of setup, not as a later patch.
Phase 5: First commercial operations
Only after the foundation is in place should you scale contracting and operations.
Align contract templates with reality (distribution/agency, sales terms, service/after-sales, lease, employment).
If hiring, set HR basics (roles, payroll logic, workplace policies).
Keep a short list of compliance control points (data protection, e-commerce registration where relevant, product conformity where relevant).
Next: Compliance and Operations
In next month’s post, we’ll cover the compliance and operational side; official channels, sector checks, and what “ready to operate” looks like after registration.
If you’re a Chinese company looking to enter the Türkiye market, you can also check here: 市场进入咨询
How We Support Your Türkiye Entry
We support your Türkiye market entry with the right structure, not just a fast registration. We are a Turkish team with an office in İstanbul, Türkiye. These market-entry projects are personally led by our co-founder Mert Molay, a lawyer who runs our Istanbul operations.
We align the company vs branch decision with your real footprint (contracts, invoicing, hiring, banking), maintain a clean apostille/translation/notary chain, and set authority and official channels early to prevent avoidable delays and compliance issues. Share your business model and footprint, and we will turn it into a clear, executable setup plan.
Contact us to discuss your Türkiye market entry.