Law of Succession
For certain reasons all Turkish laws of succession show a close link to European laws, especially to the German ones.
When foreigners who own property or real estate in Turkey die, all they own is inherited by their heirs in law. The heirs will get some paperwork from the probate court of the country in which they are citizens. This is called a certificate of inheritance. The heirs, when showing this paper to the Turkish Court, will then get a certificate of enforcement. Based on this certificate, all goods of the deceased person will pass into the ownership of the heirs. The heirs who have got any property or real estate declare their inheritance and, related to this, need to pay inheritance tax.
Each of the heirs will get a proportion of the inheritance without paying inheritance tax. The part of the inheritance without tax is calculated in relation to the number of heirs.
You need to think about this situation when you own property in Turkey. Don?t make any decisions without consulting a notary or, better still, a lawyer, who should be able to answer all of your questions with the help of an official interpreter. After getting all the answers you require, make sure you write down all your intentions in a statement. These regulations are international laws and therefore are the same everywhere in the world.
Because of similarity to European laws and possible entry into the European Community, you will find lots of the regulations will be well-known to you from home. It is quite important to have a close relationship with your interpreter, so make sure he is an extremely trustworthy person.