Verifying a Turkish company: MERSIS, the Trade Registry Gazette and what to check

Why Türkiye is its own verification problem

Turkish corporate filings are well-structured. The Trade Registry (Ticaret Sicil), the MERSIS central identification system and the Turkish Trade Registry Gazette (Türkiye Ticaret Sicil Gazetesi) collectively make the legal facts about a Turkish company accessible, once you know where to look and what to ask for. The harder question for a foreign buyer is the financial one.

Türkiye has lived through several years of high and volatile inflation, with the lira losing significant purchasing power against major trading currencies. Audited accounts are not generally published for private limited companies. Reported turnover and reported real performance can diverge sharply depending on whether figures are presented in lira, in inflation-adjusted lira, or in hard-currency equivalents. None of this makes Turkish suppliers any less credible as trading partners: it does mean that the standard "look up the accounts" check that works in Western Europe doesn't.

Step 1 · Get the MERSIS number

MERSIS (the Merkezi Sicil Kayıt Sistemi, or Central Registry Record System) is Türkiye's centralised company identification platform. Every Turkish legal entity has a sixteen-digit MERSIS number that uniquely identifies it across all chambers of commerce. The number is shown on the trade registry record and on most formal correspondence.

Ask the counterparty for the MERSIS number along with their tax ID (Vergi Kimlik Numarası). A counterparty that cannot supply both has either an administrative problem or is not the registered entity it claims to be. With those two identifiers, every subsequent check becomes faster and unambiguous.

Step 2 · Check the Trade Registry and registry chamber

Turkish companies are registered with the regional Trade Registry Office (Ticaret Sicil Müdürlüğü) attached to their local chamber of commerce. There are many of these chambers across the country: Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ITO), Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ISO), Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO), Izmir Chamber of Commerce (IZTO), Bursa Chamber of Commerce and so on. The registry record confirms:

• Legal name (Ticaret Unvanı) and trade name
• Trade Registry number (Ticaret Sicil Numarası) and registering chamber
• Legal form — see below
• Date of registration and current status
• Registered office address
• Business activity (faaliyet konusu)
• Subscribed and paid-in capital
• Directors and authorised signatories with their representation rights

Capital figures should be read with the inflation caveat in mind. A company with a TRY 50,000 paid-in capital registered in 2010 reflects a very different real commitment than the same figure registered in 2024.

Step 3 · Know the legal forms

Turkish commercial law recognises several legal forms, and the form matters for what reporting is required and what liability sits where:

• Anonim Şirket (A.Ş.) — joint-stock company, equivalent to a public limited company. Minimum capital TRY 250,000 (raised from 50,000 in 2024). Used for larger and listed businesses.
• Limited Şirket (Ltd. Şti.) — the standard limited liability company. The most common form for SMEs. Minimum capital TRY 50,000 (raised from 10,000 in 2024).
• Kooperatif (Koop.) — cooperative society. Used in agricultural and some construction sectors.
• Şahıs şirketi / Gerçek kişi tacir — sole proprietorship. No corporate veil; personal liability of the proprietor.
• Şube — a branch of a foreign or domestic company. Not a separate legal person.

A counterparty trading as a şahıs şirketi at any meaningful scale should be treated as personal-credit exposure, not corporate. An A.Ş. and a Ltd. Şti. of identical apparent size are not equivalent: the A.Ş. is subject to substantially more rigorous corporate governance and disclosure requirements.

Step 4 · Search the Turkish Trade Registry Gazette

The Türkiye Ticaret Sicil Gazetesi (TTSG) is the official gazette of the trade registry. Every registration event (incorporation, capital change, director appointment, address change, merger, liquidation, dissolution) is published here. The TTSG online archive is searchable by company name, MERSIS number or tax ID and returns the publication history in chronological order.

The TTSG is the closest Türkiye has to a single source of truth for corporate events, and reviewing the full publication history of a counterparty often reveals patterns a single status check would miss: repeated director changes, frequent capital reductions, multiple address moves, or changes of legal form. None of these is automatically a problem; all of them are worth understanding.

Step 5 · Cross-check the tax ID

The Vergi Kimlik Numarası (VKN) is the ten-digit tax identification number issued by the Revenue Administration (Gelir İdaresi Başkanlığı). The Revenue Administration publishes a free verification tool (interaktif vergi dairesi) that confirms the tax ID is valid, registered to the company name supplied, and currently active.

A mismatched or inactive VKN is a hard stop. An active VKN registered to a name different from the trading name presented is not automatically wrong (the counterparty may be invoicing through a related entity), but it is information you want before you do business.

Where the public record runs out

The checks above are necessary and they catch the obvious problems. What they will not tell you, particularly for Turkish counterparties, is:

• Current financial position. Limited Şirket accounts are not published. Even where filed with the chamber, they sit behind paid access and tend to be filed at the minimum required detail.
• The real meaning of stated capital and revenue. Inflation-adjusted commentary on the figures is not in the registry. A 30% nominal sales growth in a year of 50% inflation is a real contraction; the registry shows only the nominal number.
• Currency mix of receivables and payables. Turkish exporters often invoice in hard currency while incurring costs in lira, or vice versa. The balance sheet alone doesn't reveal the foreign-exchange exposure that determines real solvency in a volatile period.
• Court records. Turkish civil and commercial court records are not openly searchable by party name in the way UK courts are. Litigation history requires local-language search by a person with access credentials.
• Protests and dishonoured cheques. The Risk Merkezi (Banks Association Risk Centre) holds dishonoured cheque records, but access is restricted to banks and authorised parties, not direct foreign enquiry.
• Banking and trade references. The relationships that genuinely reveal payment behaviour and standing in market.

Türkiye is a strong example of why a freshly investigated in-country report is more useful than a registry portal alone: the registry confirms existence, while an on-the-ground investigation can help to confirm standing.

What a Turkey company report adds

A Turkey company credit report is researched by a local agent and combines the registry verification with the work that has to be done in-country. Typical research and case-specific information can include:

• Trade Registry, MERSIS and TTSG verification
• Annual financial statements where filed, with inflation-adjusted commentary
• Director and shareholder identification, group structure and beneficial ownership
• Court record search where accessible, including labour and execution proceedings
• Banking and trade references
• Operating premises verification
• Credit rating, calculated credit limit and risk assessment in English

Reports are delivered in English, with Turkish-language source material translated and contextualised.