Hit by a foreign-plate car in Türkiye?

How a foreign-plate accident claim works in Türkiye

If a vehicle on foreign plates hurt you on a Turkish road, your instinct may be to track down an insurer in another country. Usually you don't have to. Türkiye is part of the international Green Card (Yeşil Kart) system run by the Council of Bureaux, and that system exists so that the country where the accident happens can deal with the claim locally. Here is the framework, and the named law behind it.

• Compulsory traffic insurance (KTK 2918 / ZMSS): the Highway Traffic Act (Karayolları Trafik Kanunu, Law No. 2918) makes the vehicle's keeper liable on a risk basis and requires compulsory motor third-party liability cover (Zorunlu Mali Sorumluluk Sigortası, ZMSS). A Turkish-plated vehicle's ZMSS insurer answers directly.
• The Green Card / Bureaux system (foreign plates): for a foreign-plated vehicle visiting Türkiye, the Green Card system links each country's bureau. In Türkiye that bureau is the Turkish Motor Insurers' Bureau (TMTB / Türkiye Motorlu Taşıt Bürosu), which — through a handling Turkish insurer — can deal with and pay your claim here, then settle internationally behind the scenes.
• The Guarantee Account (KTK 108 / Güvence Hesabı): where the vehicle was uninsured, never identified (a hit-and-run), or fled the scene, this statutory fund under Article 108 of the Highway Traffic Act may still answer, subject to its conditions.
• Direct action against the insurer (TTK 1478): Turkish Commercial Code (Law No. 6102) Article 1478 lets the injured person pursue the responsible vehicle's insurer directly, up to the sum insured — so the practical defendant is often an insurer, not an individual driver.
• Time limits (KTK 109): traffic claims generally run for two years from when you learn of both the harm and who is responsible, with a ten-year long-stop from the accident. Where the accident is also a crime — as injury and fatal accidents often are — a longer criminal limitation period can apply, which often gives more time than people assume.

Which route fits depends on the facts — above all the other vehicle's plate, whether it was insured or identified, and where the accident happened. That's also why we won't print a figure from a few answers: the value of an injury claim turns on an official disability rating (maluliyet), fault (kusur), your age and income under the TRH 2010 life tables, and the evidence in the file. For the wider picture of road-accident claims, see our guide to traffic accident compensation in Türkiye.

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