Concordat (konkordato) is the Turkish court-supervised restructuring procedure. A debtor that cannot pay, or risks not being able to pay, asks the court for a moratorium and proposes a plan of deferred or reduced payments to its creditors. For a creditor, the key consequence is simple: enforcement stops, and what you recover depends largely on what you do during the procedure.
The moratorium (İİK Art. 287, 289, 294)
- Temporary moratorium: granted soon after the application, with a temporary commissioner. Three months, extendable to a maximum of five months in total.
- Definitive moratorium: one year if the plan looks viable, extendable by up to six months in complex cases.
During the moratorium:
- no new enforcement proceedings can be started against the debtor, and pending ones are stayed,
- preliminary attachments cannot be enforced,
- limitation periods relating to enforcement do not run.
Secured creditors may start or continue proceedings, but the collateral cannot be sold while the moratorium lasts.
The 7-day claim filing deadline (İİK Art. 299)
After the definitive moratorium, the commissioner publishes a notice inviting creditors to file their claims. You must file your claim, with supporting documents, within 7 days of the notice.
A creditor that does not file does not lose its claim, but cannot vote at the creditors' meeting and loses its influence on the outcome. Foreign creditors often miss this deadline because the notice is published only in Türkiye. Monitoring the court record is essential.
Creditors' meeting and court approval (İİK Art. 302)
The plan is voted on at a creditors' meeting. It is accepted only if the majorities required by law, counted both by number of creditors and by amount of claims, are reached. Secured claims vote only for the portion not covered by the collateral.
Even after acceptance, the court separately checks whether the plan meets the legal conditions. Creditors can object at the approval hearing.
Claims arising during the moratorium (İİK Art. 308/c)
Debts the debtor incurs during the moratorium with the commissioner's consent are not affected by the concordat and must be paid in full. Claims from transactions entered into without that consent may fall within the concordat. If you keep supplying a Turkish customer in concordat, make sure the commissioner's consent is documented.
Checklist for creditors
- As soon as you hear of a concordat application, have the court file monitored.
- File your claim within 7 days of the definitive moratorium notice.
- Object if the claim is disputed or recorded incorrectly.
- Vote at the creditors' meeting, directly or through counsel.
- Keep supplying only with documented commissioner consent.
See also: Debt collection in Turkey: a practical guide for foreign creditors
General information, not legal advice.