Development of Arbitration in Turkey - WAMR 2016 Vol. 10, No. 1

Author(s):

Okan Demirkan

Gürhan Aydin

Burak Eryiğit

Page Count:

19 pages

Published:

April, 2016

Jurisdictions:

Middle East,

Turkey

Practice Areas:

Training of Arbitrators,

Nationality of Arbitrators,

Arbitral Adjudication,

Formal Requirements

Author Detail:

Okan Demirkan is a partner of the Kolcuoğlu Demirkan Koçaklı (KDK) firm in Istanbul, Turkey. He currently leads the Firm’s dispute resolution and energy practices. Between 2004 and 2010, Mr. Demirkan was heavily involved in all legal and regulatory issues surrounding the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Crude Oil Pipeline Project (BTC). In addition to the BTC, Mr. Demirkan has advised clients in connection with the Nabucco Gas Pipeline and the Samsun-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline. In 2011, Mr. Demirkan took an active role in the Shah Deniz Stage 2 Gas Sale Project as head of the KDK team, advising on the project’s legal structure in Turkey. Between January and June 2012, the KDK team, led by Mr. Demirkan, played a key role in the multi-billion dollar Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project, drafting both the Host Government Agreement and Intergovernmental Agreement, and negotiating their execution with the Turkish Government. In 2013 and 2014, Mr. Demirkan was awarded the Client Choice Award by International Law Office Magazine for his work on Energy and Natural Resources projects.

Gürhan Aydin has extensive experience in distributorship, dealership, insurance, and employment disputes, as well as a wide variety of corporate law matters, including white-collar crime and international sales contracts. His work has also involved the full range of debt-collection proceedings, from execution to bankruptcy and foreclosure, of both negotiable instruments and real property. In addition, Mr. Aydin has experience in commercial and sports-related arbitration, and post-arbitration litigation, where he has represented several foreign clients in enforcement and set-aside lawsuits.

Burak Eryiğit has experience in litigation, arbitration and infrastructure projects. He is currently attending an LL.M. program at Queen Mary University of London.

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Description:

Originally From World Arbitration and Mediation Review (WAMR)

I. INTRODUCTION

With aspirations to become a key international arbitration venue, Turkey enacted new legislation on November 29, 2014 in order to establish the Istanbul Arbitration Center (Center). With its own arbitration center, the number of arbitration proceedings in Turkey is expected to increase substantially. Inevitably, this increase will result in a concurrent rise in the number of set-aside lawsuits.

The aim of this article is to provide information regarding the Center’s establishment, and to elaborate on the development of court practice in set-aside lawsuits. In an effort to demonstrate how Turkish courts handle the most invoked set-aside grounds, this article underlines the general approach adopted by the courts of first instance in Turkey’s two largest cities (Istanbul and Ankara) over the past three years.

II. ISTANBUL ARBITRATION CENTER

The idea of establishing an international arbitration institution was introduced to the Turkish arbitration community in the Strategy and Action Plan for Istanbul International Financial Center (SAP), which was coordinated by the State Planning Organization and approved by the Resolution of High Planning Council on September 29, 2009. The SAP’s purpose was to make Istanbul an international financial center.

To realize that purpose, the SAP referenced the necessity of legal improvements, which included the establishment of an independent and autonomous institutional arbitration center capable of competing internationally (with respect to cost, speed, and award-finalization processes), and the effective operation of a mediation system. Since then, Turkish scholars and practitioners had been excitedly awaiting the establishment of an independent and autonomous arbitration institution.