Turkmen in Georgia is represented by one specific flow of many years' standing: citizens of Turkmenistan are one of the most numerous groups of foreign students at Georgian universities, on medical, technical and business programmes, from Tbilisi to Batumi. Every step of these students, from enrolment to the residence permit and to recognition of the diploma in Turkmenistan, requires translation of documents, and Turkmenistan is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, which puts every document through full consular legalisation. Added to this is the business of the transit corridor, across the Caspian Sea to Georgia's ports, Turkmen patients at Georgian clinics and Turkmen-Georgian families. We translate from Turkmen into Georgian and from Georgian into Turkmen, in the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, notarise the translation and arrange the legalisation.
Why Turkmen is a student language in Georgia
Coming from Turkmenistan to study in Georgia has continued for more than a decade: the affordable price of Georgian universities, English- and Russian-language programmes, the popularity of medical education and geographical proximity make Georgia one of the main educational destinations for Turkmen families. A Turkmen student's document cycle is long and consistent: the school certificate (orta bilim hakynda şahadatnama) and transcript for enrolment; the birth certificate, passport and medical certificate for the residence permit; the parents' financial documents; annual renewals; and finally, preparing the Georgian diploma for submission in Turkmenistan, which requires a separate, rather strict procedure. We know this full cycle and serve the student from the first day to the diploma with one terminology base and one transliteration scheme.
Legalisation, not apostille
Turkmenistan is not a party to the Hague Convention, and this means full consular legalisation in both directions. A Turkmen document for Georgia is first legalised at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, then the Georgian embassy in Ashgabat confirms it, and in Georgia the Georgian translation is notarised. A Georgian document for Turkmenistan is first notarised in Georgia, then the consular department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia confirms the notary's seal, and finally the diplomatic mission of Turkmenistan completes the legalisation, after which the document is ready for submission to the authorities of Turkmenistan. This procedure is longer than an apostille, so the preparation of documents on the Turkmenistan direction must be planned in advance. For students this is especially important: the legalisation of Turkmen documents must be settled before arriving in Georgia, while in Turkmenistan, because afterwards the process becomes much harder remotely.
Two alphabets, two eras
The Turkmen language switched to the Latin alphabet in 1993, with its own additional letters (ä, ç, ž, ň, ö, ş, ü, ý), but documents of the Soviet period are in Cyrillic, often in Russian or bilingual, Turkmen-Russian. This means that a Turkmen translator must command three layers: modern Latin Turkmen, Soviet Cyrillic Turkmen and Russian, because in one family's document package all three may be present at once. The parents' birth certificates on Soviet forms in Russian, the student's certificate in modern Turkmen in Latin, the medical certificate bilingual. Our translators command all three layers, and in the translation we always note in which alphabet and language the original is written, because for a Georgian authority this is important information about the document's era and origin.
Which documents come in Turkmen
- School certificate (orta bilim hakynda şahadatnama) and transcript for university enrolment
- Birth certificate (dogluş hakynda şahadatnama), of the modern or Soviet form
- Passport and identity card, with the Latin entry of the name
- Medical certificate for the residence permit, often in Russian
- The parents' financial and employment certificates to confirm the student's financial support
- Marriage certificate (nika hakynda şahadatnama) for a family visa and registration
- Certificate of no criminal record for the residence permit
- University diploma and supplement from Turkmenistan, for enrolment on a master's programme
- Medical documents for Turkmen patients treated at Georgian clinics
- Transit and export documents for the logistics of the Caspian corridor
Which Georgian documents are translated into Turkmen
The main case of translation from Georgian into Turkmen is a Turkmen graduate's Georgian diploma: the diploma, the supplement with grades and credits, the description of the curriculum, the university's accreditation certificate, all with legalisation and a Turkmen or Russian translation for recognition at the Ministry of Education of Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan conducts the recognition of foreign diplomas by strict and periodically changing rules, with criteria of university rankings and programme correspondence, and the documentary side of this procedure requires special accuracy. Added to this: translation of a Georgian residence permit and study certificates for Turkmen authorities; a Georgian citizen's documents for marriage or business in Turkmenistan; the transit and commercial documents of Georgian companies for Turkmen partners; the discharge summaries of Georgian clinics for Turkmen patients.
Transliteration: passport, Cyrillic, Latin
The transliteration of Turkmen names contains a double difficulty. First, the same name is in Cyrillic in a Soviet document and in Latin in a modern one, and the Latin form can often be written two ways, with the special Turkmen letters (Gurbanmyrat, Aýgül) or simplified in the passport (Gurbanmyrat, Aygul). Second, the Turkmen naming system differs from the Georgian: the patronymic (ata ady) is part of the official name, with the suffixes -owiç, -owna in the Soviet tradition or -ogly, -gyzy in the Turkmen tradition, and the Georgian system, which expects one first name and one surname, cannot accept this structure without explanation. In the translation we always write the Latin form according to the passport, keep the Cyrillic original, add the Georgian transcription with Turkmen pronunciation, and the form once chosen remains unchanged in all documents of this person, from the school certificate to the diploma. This consistency is decisive for recognition of the diploma in Turkmenistan.
Educational documents: from enrolment to recognition
The Turkmen school system is 12 years, and the certificate (orta bilim hakynda şahadatnama) uses a 5-point grading system, where 5 is the highest and 3 the minimum pass, unlike the Georgian 10-point one. For a Georgian university and for the National Centre for Educational Quality Enhancement, which conducts recognition of foreign education, we attach an explanatory note to the translation of the certificate. In the opposite direction recognition of a Georgian diploma in Turkmenistan is the most demanding procedure: the Ministry of Education of Turkmenistan requires the diploma, the supplement, a full description of the curriculum with hours and documents confirming the university's status, with legalisation and translation, and the consistency of the names of subjects across all documents is critical. For Turkmen graduates we prepare this package with one terminology base and keep track of the current state of the recognition requirements.
Family matters: marriage, children, citizenship
Turkmen-Georgian families, often precisely the result of the student years, create their own flow of documents. For marriage registration in Georgia a Turkmen citizen needs a certificate of marital status from Turkmenistan, with legalisation and a Georgian translation; when a child is born, the Georgian birth certificate is translated into Turkmen for the authorities of Turkmenistan, with legalisation, while matters of Turkmen citizenship are subject to the specifics of Turkmen legislation, which does not recognise dual citizenship and requires a consultation with the Turkmen consulate on this matter. In these processes consistent writing of names in both languages is especially important, because in future the child's documents of both countries must correspond to each other, and the Turkmen patronymic system needs a solution thought through in advance in the Georgian registry.
Business with Turkmenistan: the Caspian corridor
Turkmenistan is a transit partner for Georgia: from the port of Turkmenbashi across the Caspian Sea to Baku, then by rail to Georgia's ports, this is one of the branches of the Middle Corridor, along which Turkmen oil products, fertilisers, textiles and the cargoes of Central Asia move towards Europe. The documents of this logistics, transport waybills, certificates of origin, customs declarations, contracts with freight forwarders, are translated from Turkmen and Russian into Georgian and vice versa. Turkmen commercial documents are often bilingual, Turkmen-Russian, with the seals of state companies and specific Turkmen terminology, which consists of the Russian Soviet tradition and modern Turkmen neologisms. The tender and commercial offers of Georgian companies for Turkmen partners are translated into Turkmen or Russian, according to the partner's requirement.
Medical translation: Turkmen patients at Georgian clinics
The flow of Turkmen patients to Georgian clinics comes from two sources: students and their families who live in Georgia, and medical tourists who come for cardiological, oncological, reproductive and orthopaedic treatment, often as an alternative to Turkey. Turkmen medical documents, the discharge summary, test results, prescriptions, follow the tradition of Soviet medical documentation, are often in Russian or bilingual, and are structurally transparent to a Georgian doctor who comes from the same tradition. The trade names of drugs are those of the Central Asian, Russian and Turkish markets and need the international non-proprietary name in the Georgian translation. In the opposite direction a Georgian clinic's discharge summary for a Turkmen patient is translated into Turkmen or Russian so that treatment continues in Turkmenistan, and for Turkmen insurance or state reimbursement also with legalisation.
Technical and energy documentation
The economy of Turkmenistan is built on gas, oil, the chemical industry and textiles, and the technical documentation of these sectors, equipment specifications, safety instructions, quality certificates, tender documents, requires two-way translation in cooperation with Georgian companies. Turkmen technical terminology comes from Soviet Russian standards (ГОСТ) and still uses them, which is a common language for a Georgian engineer who knows the same standards, but modern Turkmen neologisms appear in technical texts too. For large projects we create a terminology base, which the client's engineers approve and which is used identically in all documents for the whole duration of the project.
Typical mistakes in Turkmen translation
Experience on the Turkmen direction shows several recurring defects that we find in other providers' translations: translating a Cyrillic Soviet document by a Russian translator without understanding Turkmen seals and terms; writing a Latin Turkmen name with the special letters instead of the simplified passport version; omitting the patronymic or writing it as the surname; the absence of an explanation of the 5-point scale in a certificate; requesting an apostille where legalisation is needed; a mismatch between the names of subjects in the diploma supplement and the description of the curriculum, which is the most frequent reason for refusal of recognition in Turkmenistan; translating only one version of a bilingual document. Every one of these points is on our checklist.
The Turkmen language in translation: what the translator must know
Turkmen is a Turkic language of the Oghuz group, close to Turkish and Azerbaijani, and a translator who knows Turkish partly understands a Turkmen text, but for an official document this "partly" is dangerous: Turkmen administrative terminology consists of the Soviet Russian tradition and post-independence neologisms that do not exist in Turkish, and false friends between Turkmen and Turkish are numerous. Turkmen orthography changed several times after the reforms of the 1990s, and documents of 1993-1999 use Latin letters different from today's. Turkmen vowel harmony and vowel length, which changes meaning, require attention for Georgian transcription. Our Turkmen translators command the language directly, not through Turkish, with experience of living in Turkmenistan or working in a Turkmen educational environment, and also command Russian at professional level.
Residence and annual renewal
A Turkmen student's residence permit in Georgia is renewed annually, and every renewal requires a small package of documents: a university certificate of student status, a bank statement or the parents' financial certificate from Turkmenistan, sometimes a medical certificate. The parents' financial documents from Turkmenistan come in Turkmen or Russian, with the seals of Turkmen banks or employers, and are translated for the Georgian immigration authority. This recurring flow is simplified for a student who works with us from the first year: the terminology base and the transliteration scheme already exist, and every new document is prepared consistently with the translations of previous years. For student groups that go through the same procedure at the same time we have a group format, where the document packages are certified with the notary in one visit.
What sets our Turkmen translation apart
- Command of all three linguistic layers: Latin Turkmen, Cyrillic Soviet Turkmen and Russian, in one family's document package
- Knowledge of a Turkmen student's full document cycle, from the school certificate to recognition of the diploma in Turkmenistan
- Organisation of the legalisation chain on the Georgian side and advice on the steps on the Turkmen side
- A single transliteration scheme according to the passport, with an explanation of the patronymic system
- Notarisation by a translator registered in the Turkmen-Georgian pair, the process fully online
Frequently asked questions
Does a document for Turkmenistan need an apostille?
No, Turkmenistan is not a party to the convention. Full consular legalisation is needed: the notary, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, the diplomatic mission of Turkmenistan. The procedure must be planned in advance.
How do I prepare a Turkmen school certificate for enrolment in Georgia?
The certificate and transcript with legalisation in Turkmenistan (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Georgian embassy in Ashgabat), then a notarised Georgian translation in Georgia with an explanation of the 5-point scale. Settle the legalisation before arrival.
My parents' birth certificate is on a Soviet form, in Russian. Will a Turkmen translator cope?
Yes, our translators command both Cyrillic Turkmen and Russian. In the translation we note that the original is from the Soviet period and in Russian.
How is a Georgian diploma recognised in Turkmenistan?
The Ministry of Education of Turkmenistan requires the diploma, the supplement, a description of the curriculum and documents on the university's status, with legalisation and a Turkmen or Russian translation. The requirements are strict and changeable, so we prepare the package with one terminology base and keep track of the current rules.
How is a Turkmen name with a patronymic written in a Georgian document?
The full name in the order of the original, by the Latin entry of the passport, and with a note on which part is the first name, the surname and the patronymic. The form once chosen remains unchanged in all documents.
The Turkmen document is in Latin but with the special letters, while the passport is without them. Which do I write?
The passport version, because the Georgian authority compares with it. We keep the Turkmen entry of the original in brackets.
Turkmen export documents are in Russian. Do I need a Turkmen translator or a Russian one?
In the case of a bilingual document a Turkmen translator who also commands Russian checks the correspondence of both versions. A document only in Russian is also possible with a Russian translator, with knowledge of Turkmen seals and details.
A Turkmen patient's discharge summary is in Russian. Do I need a Turkmen translator for a Georgian doctor?
A Russian-language discharge summary is also possible with a Russian translator, but Turkmen seals, the names of clinics and bilingual fields require knowledge of Turkmen. Our Turkmen translators command both.
Is it possible to prepare documents for a group of students at the same time?
Yes, in the group format: the document packages of the same procedure are certified with the notary in one visit, with one terminology base, which reduces the deadline.
How long does a Turkmen translation take?
Translation and notarisation in 1-2 working days, express faster. The legalisation chain takes weeks, so the preparation of documents on the Turkmenistan direction must be planned in advance.