Sworn Translation in Iğdır

The difference between “we understand each other anyway” and “it is officially accepted”

There is one question we meet again and again in enquiries from Iğdır: “The other side understands it anyway, so is a translation really needed?” In daily life that may well be true; the closeness between Azerbaijani and Turkish makes it easy to get by in conversation in the province. But an official procedure runs on another plane altogether. A customs administration, a court or a land registry office wants to see that the text in front of it has been translated by an authorised translator and, where required, notarised; being comprehensible is not enough. That is why a good part of the files coming from Iğdır arise from matters in which the parties understand one another perfectly well and yet the authority insists on an official copy. The heart of it is not the language barrier but preparing the document in a form the law will accept.

Where the weight of the province’s files falls

Iğdır is a province where border crossing logistics and agriculture stand out, and the documents that arrive most often follow suit: transport and customs paperwork, together with the annexes to agricultural exports. Shipments of fruit and vegetables call for plant health certificates, residue analysis reports and packaging and label information. From logistics firms come vehicle and driver documents, carriage contracts and insurance policies. On the individual side there are the documents produced by family ties running across the border: civil registry records, marriage and divorce certificates, inheritance matters, powers of attorney and educational papers.

Document	Why an official translation is required
Plant health certificate	A condition of acceptance by the agricultural authority of the receiving country
Carriage contract and policy	Evidential value where damage and liability arise
Inheritance and title deed papers	A property transaction in the country on the other side
Power of attorney	Acting on behalf of a relative at a distance
Diploma and transcript	Study and recognition applications

Where the demand for Azerbaijani, Persian and Russian comes from

Azerbaijani is the heading in highest demand, for the reason set out above: the relationship is a close one, but the procedure calls for an official copy. Persian comes second, because the province’s trade also flows towards the neighbour to the south; the buyer, the customs broker and the haulier there work in Persian, and the binding copy of a contract is more often than not signed in that language. Russian enters as the third party to regional trade; it is called for on consignments running through the Caucasus and in the reading of older documents. All three languages leave the same province but go to the authorities of different countries, so the forms of approval differ too. Rates appear on the shared list on the languages page.

A brief summary of the points we are asked about most often:

• Sworn translation is required between closely related languages as well; what settles the matter is not comprehensibility but the authority’s condition of acceptance.
• Copies of the same document destined for two countries are prepared separately.
• Because the spelling of names can shift between alphabets, a single rendering is fixed.
• The notary’s fee is set by an official tariff and is a separate item from the agency’s fee.

Demand rises and falls with the season

The work that comes from Iğdır is not spread evenly across the year. During the harvest and shipping periods the paperwork of agricultural exports builds up, and several analysis reports and certificates arrive in the same week. Through the rest of the year the weight shifts towards individual and legal files. Because we know this pattern, we move files arriving in the shipping periods to the front of the queue and keep the recurring certificate patterns ready. The translation time for the second and third consignments then falls markedly. We take the same approach with logistics firms making regular runs: the renderings of vehicle and driver documents are fixed once and not built again on later runs.

Settling it before you set off

Bringing documents from Iğdır to Ankara is not a realistic option, and so we have set the process up from the start to run at a distance. You upload the document from where you are, the price and the delivery date appear at once, and the sworn signature and, where required, notarisation are completed at our office in Ankara Kızılay. The electronically signed copy reaches your inbox the same day, and the wet-signed copy arrives at your address by courier. We have no branch in Iğdır. You can send your first file through the quote form, and settle which service you need on the services page.

The information here summarises the process; the notarisation and apostille steps are completed in Ankara. We recommend that you confirm the current position with the authority handling your matter.