Regulation On The Amendment To The Associations Regulation Is Published! 26 October 2021

Innovations Regarding Electronically Conducting General Assembly and Board of Directors Meetings

With the Regulation, the provision of Article 15/A titled "Conducting the General Assembly and Board of Directors meetings in electronic environment" has been included to follow the 15th Article of  the Regulation on Associations, which regulates the meeting procedures regarding the General Assembly meetings. Within the scope of aforementioned article;

• It has been regulated that in accordance with the 2nd Additional Article of the Law, the associations can; held General Assembly and Board of Directors meetings electronically and the said meetings can be held via electronic systems that are approved and favoured by the Ministry of Internal Affairs Information Technologies General Directorate, and the data to be processed in the aforementioned systems will be processed and stored in accordance with the provisions of the Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698,
• in the resolution of the Board of Directors regarding conducting of the general assembly and the announcement of general assembly, it is necessary to specify the method by which the general assembly will be held and the resolution of the Board of directors to be taken electronically should be stored electronically separately  from the board resolution book kept in the physical environment,
• all the procedures and principles set forth in the relevant legislation or the association's bylaws to held the general assembly and Board of Directors meetings physically will also be valid for the meetings to be held electronically,
• all kinds of information, documents and records regarding the meetings held electronically should be kept by the association,
• the members who will participate in the meetings to be held electronically will be logged into the system through a secure electronic signature or two-factor authentication system; additionally, the system should have a design, backup and archiving capacity in accordance with the legislation which enables voting, taking the floor, making proposals and all similar transactions electronically, and that it should also provide the necessary network and system security against unauthorized access and attacks.

In this respect, it should be emphasized that as a result of the new regulation, the sanctions applied in the case of the meetings held physically are held in violation of the legislation will also be applied to the meetings held electronically.

Innovations Regarding the Time Periods of General Assembly Meetings

• In accordance with 16th Article of the Associations Regulation, the 30-day period following the date of the meeting, which has been determined in terms of the obligation of the association branches to notify a copy of the general assembly result notification to the local authority and their headquarters, has been increased to 45 days with the amendment made.
• Pursuant to 17th Article of the Associations Regulation; the 30-day period following the ordinary or extraordinary general assembly meetings in the regulation regarding the submission of the General Assembly Result Statement, which includes the original and alternate members elected to the Administrative Board, board of supervisors and other bodies, to the local authority has been increased to 45 days.

Innovations Regarding Foreign Aids

• The name of the fourth section of the Regulation on Associations, titled "Receiving Aid from Abroad", was changed to "Foreign Aid", and additional paragraphs were included to Articles 18 and 19 of this section.
• As regulated in the paragraphs added to Article 18 titled "Notification Obligation"; it has been made obligatory for the associations to notify the local authority of aids to be made abroad before aid is given, and the money and aid sent by foreign associations, foreign foundations and non-profit organizations’ branches and representations, to their headquarters and abroad, are subject to the same procedure.
• It is regulated that cash aids exceeding 100,000 Turkish Liras or 10,000 Euros or equivalent foreign currency to be sent abroad will be transmitted through banks and other financial institutions or the Postal and Telegraph Organization Joint Stock Company; however, aids to countries with difficult financial access are exempted and subjected to separate procedures. As a result of aforementioned regulation, the principle of increasing the monetary amounts mentioned in Turkish Lira stated as 100,000 Turkish Liras, at the revaluation rate determined and announced in accordance with the Tax Procedure Law No. 213 with respect to the previous year, has been adopted, effective from the beginning of the calendar year. In the said regulation, it has been stated that amounts below one Turkish Lira will not be taken into account.
• While the title of Article 19 of the Regulation on Associations, titled "Application", is revised to "Form of notification"; the expression "ANNEX-4" in the first paragraph of the article is revised to "ANNEX-4/A". As stated in the regulation brought with the paragraphs added to the article; the associations which help abroad and foreign associations, the foreign foundations and non-profit organizations that are allowed to operate within the scope of Article 5 of the Associations Law must provide the "Notification of Aid to Abroad" specified in Annex-4/B, and the "Notification of the Result of Aid Abroad Activity" specified in Annex-4/C after the aid is provided, to the community relations unit, before the aid is given.