As Turkey maintains economic stability and growth for almost five years, the confidence of the foreign investors raised and new direct investments are executed more often. In this context employee related issues are of consideration to foreign investors and significance of the Turkish Labor Code ('TLC') elevate accordingly.

In general, wills must be in writing and signed by the testator in the presence of two witnesses before a public notary, magistrate or an authorized officer. In practice, official wills are issued before public notaries. Witnesses must be adults and must have full legal capacity.

Joint Stock and Limited Liable Companies are two most common company types in Turkish practice. Therefore we will substantially proceed with meeting and resolution quorums of these company types after brief general information is provided.

Purpose, Scope, Basis and Definitions

A)Incorporation of a Liaison Office in Turkey - I. The new legislation concerning foreign investment in Turkey includes a clause stating that a liaison office is not allowed to conduct "commercial activities". There is no precise definition of what exactly is referred to by "commercial activities".

Signature Circular is an official document signed before the Notary in which signature powers of the Company and its branches are determined and the limitations of such powers are detailed.

You may find the brief memorandum below which explains the legal status of incorporating a joint stock company by way of conversion from a limited liable company in the system of the Turkish Commercial Code (“the TCC”) and the procedure if such conversion is to be resolved.

Petroleum Market Law numbered 5015 has been enacted at December 4, 2003, within the efforts performed to institutionalize the market economy and improve the competitive environment in order to update the current legal regulations in the petroleum and petroleum product industry and regulate the markets.

1. Term of employment is designated as maximum 45 hours a week. Overwork (overtime) begins when 45 hours of terms of working time is exceeded. Working extra hours (excessive work) is determined as the hours that are up 45 hours a week in the event that working hours are designated below 45 hours under an agreement. Overtime total shall not be more than 270 hours a year.

The employee is entitled to terminate the contract, whether for a definite or an indefinite period, within the presence of serious and important reasons determined in the Labor Law numbered 4857 (“the Law”), in the following cases and such reasons are classified in three groups.

Communiqué on the Amendment to the Communiqué on Principles regarding Real Estate Investment Companies (Serial: VI, No: 26) (“Amendment Communiqué”) has been published in the Official Gazette on December 31, 2009 entered into force on the same date.

Board of Directors of Joint Stock Companies is the body which manages and represents the company in the structure of joint stock company. In this regard, the BoD is liable to determine the company organization, to appoint the authorized individuals that manages and represents the company and to supervise them.

The draft version of the Turkish Commercial Code (“the Draft”) removed the current determination of progressive incorporation that is not applied. In addition, it is possible by the Draft for joint stock (“JSC”) and limited liable (“LLC”) companies to be incorporated by one shareholder and one partner.

The Draft Version of the Turkish Commercial Code includes seventy articles for the determination of mergers, spin-offs and conversions and such articles involve full protection of the shareholders, partners and other relevant parties. Merger and Spin-off types are acknowledged.

Foreign national citizens are obliged to be granted work permit by the General Directorate of Foreign Capital in order to perform work inside the borders of Turkey. The application to the General Directorate of Foreign Capital is submitted by the Employer.

A business organization may either perform its business activities from a certain place or establish work places in accordance with the necessity of the business activity. Some of such business organizations may perform similar activities of the headquarters within the directions of the headquarters (e.g. banks).

As per Turkish Law, foreign or domestic companies may establish a branch office in order to execute their activities. A branch office shall have no legal entity and shall be registered with the Trade Registry and represented by one or more representative/branch manager.

As is known, there have been numerous situations where audio and video recordings are taken in secret. Therefore, legal aspect of taking audio and video recordings in secret shall be examined.

In line with the present legislation related to corporate law and the Turkish Commercial Code, joint stock company and limited liability company are the two most common company types. You may find a chart below that designates the fundamental characteristics of a JSC and its differences from a LLC.

A share is the part of the main capital divided to a specific number of unit value. In accordance with the current Turkish Commercial Code it is not mandatory for a Joint Stock Company to issue shares. JSC reserves two types of shares. These are registered share and bearer share.