Challenges of Turkish Legal Translation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

The United Arab Emirates is now a home for almost 200 different nationalities from different parts of the world. The residents love the country for multiple reasons. The most important among all the reasons is its fast pace growth and modernity. The work culture in the country is regarded as the most convenient and smart compared to other parts of the world. The nationals of the country make only 17% of the total population. The regulatory authorities are commendable and created an environment of sustainable business with laws and regulations strict in its places.

Every Entrepreneur wants to operate from this unique geographical location. According to the report named ‘Doing Business 2024’ published by the World Bank Group, the United Arab Emirates ranks 16th with a score of 80.9 from the top in ease of doing business. Also, professionals from every country come down to the United Arab Emirates to work as employees.

Thus, there is a high influx of foreign documents coming into the country for various purposes. These purposes include meeting the statutory requirements at the Immigration, Human Resources, Health Authorities, Economic Departments, Municipalities, Banks, etc. Also, a huge number of documents travel from the country to other countries.

According to the foreign policy, these documents need to be duly legalized as per the standard norms and then get translated into the official language of the destination country. The translators who are authorized to do so must be licensed for a particular language pair from the Ministry of Justice of the United Arab Emirates. Such a translation is known as a legal translation.

Source: The Sherwood Group

Turkish Business Council

Turkey-UAE Business Council also known as the Turkish Business Council was established in the year 2000 in Dubai under the roof of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce. It was formed primarily to encourage and cultivate businesses and trade between Turkey & the UAE. The secondary purposes were to facilitate business connections, economic development, & knowledge sharing. Since 2000 there has been sustained growth in the size of the Turkish business community in the country. A huge number of official and personal documents written in Turkish arrives in the UAE every day and also, a huge number of Arabic documents travel from the country to Turkey. Every document in Arabic needs to be legally translated into Turkish before it arrives in Turkey. Thus, Arabic-Turkish legal translation is very important to every business enterprise in the UAE that has any business relationship in Turkey.

Source: helico.com.tr

The Recent Growth of Turkish Business in the United Arab Emirates

The Turkish business community in the UAE is considerably large. The total amount of exports from the UAE to Turkey was almost 5 Billion USD in 2024 & the total amount of imports was around 4.5 Billion USD in the same year. The main export items are crude oil, jewelry, hydrocarbon, metal commodities, electrical equipment, electronics items, pieces of machinery, & motor vehicles. The main items of import are gold (both unprocessed and semi-processed), expensive jewelry, pieces of machinery, electrical equipment, electronics items, air vehicles, spare parts of motor vehicles & complete motor vehicles, petroleum products, plastic items, world-class garments, crude iron, & varieties of steel.

Source: Arabic Translation Services

Turkish Legal Translation in the UAE

Every document issued in English, Arabic, or a language other than Turkish needs to be legally translated into Turkish and then attested by the Ministry of Justice of the UAE, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the UAE, & finally by the Consulate of Turkey in Dubai. The translator translating must be a licensed translator for the Turkish language from the Ministry of Justice, UAE. The challenge lies in this very fact. Till the beginning of 2024, there was only one Turkish legal translator, Mr. Hamza Erdogan, for the Turkish language licensed from the Ministry of Justice. After he left the country in 2024 there was a huge crisis when it came to Turkish legal translation in the UAE.

Recently, the crisis has been solved to a great extent. Though there is no Turkish legal translator in the UAE, a by-pass arrangement has been made to keep the trade and commerce ongoing between Turkey and the UAE. The Turkish consulate in Dubai has now approved a handful of companies to do Turkish translation that the consulate can attest and legalize. These translations cannot be attested and legalized from the Ministry of Justice, UAE & the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the UAE but can be legalized and attested from the Turkish Consulate in Dubai. As the Turkish Consulate legalizes these translations, these translations are officially valid in Turkey. For more details contact Dar Al Marjaan Translation Services.

Source: helico.com.tr

When is Turkish Legal Translation Required?

A business enterprise may need a Turkish Legal Translation when it wants to open a branch, subsidiary, or representative office in Turkey, open bank accounts in Turkey, etc. Also, when a company in the UAE signs a written agreement with a company in Turkey or shares any information with the Govt. of Turkey, legal translation is imperative in that case.

Source: London Translations

Career Opportunities for Turkish/Arabic Legal Translator in the UAE

In languages like Arabic, English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Farsi, Chinese there are multiple legal translators licensed from the Ministry of Justice available in the UAE. But, for Turkish, there is none at the moment. Translators who are proficient in the translation of legal documents from Arabic to Turkish & Turkish to Arabic can avail of this golden opportunity. They must visit the website of the Ministry of Justice, UAE, and read the necessary documents and experience required to apply for the license.

If they find themselves qualified & eligible for the license they should travel to the UAE and get employed in a registered translation agency. After obtaining the Emirates ID they can apply online on the website of the Ministry as mentioned above. Once, they pass the examination held by the Ministry they can add their license to the translation agency license and start working as a Turkish legal translator. The work volume is considerably high so at least the first 10 Turkish legal translators will have a great career in terms of experience and remuneration. This is a lucrative job & respectful career.