ERDEM-NEWSLETTER-2018-metin

69 COMMERCIAL LAW of the concern. Article 603 applies to aval, and aval is not one of the cases wherein the consent of the spouse is not required. However, some of the chambers stated that suretyship and aval are completely different transactions, and are regulated by different laws, and that aval is a unilateral legal transaction, and due to this feature, it cannot be accepted as a “contract” as is shown in Article 603 of the TCO. Pursuant to the principle of narrow interpretation of exceptional provisions, it is not possible to extend the condition set forth in Article 584 of TCO for the consent of spouse to include aval. The Assessment of the General Assembly of the Court of Cassation on the Unification of Judgments Due to different precedents, the General Assembly of the Court of Cassation on the Unification of Judgments took the matter under review as it relates to whether Articles 584 and 603 of the TCO will be applied to “aval”. The decision states that, the rules regarding the form of aval are regulated, both specifically and explicitly, in Article 701 of the Turk- ish Commercial Code (“TCC”). In this respect, aval is an exchange suretyship, and is formed by a unilateral declaration of avaliste to this end. For the form of an aval, it is sufficient for the avaliste to write “for aval” or another equivalent expression on the bill of exchange, to indicate for whom the aval is given, and to sign the same. If it is not stated in the statement of aval to whom it is given, it is accepted that the payment is given to the account of the drawer. In accordance with Article 584 of the TCO, if it is accepted that the consent of spouse is sought for aval, firstly, whether or not the avaliste is married should be ascertained from the bill. This is essential for subsequent endorsers to know whether or not the aval is valid, and to trust the bill. However, the Decision states that writing or adding information as to the marital status of the avaliste on the bill would is not appropriate and functional in terms of practice. Pursuant to Article 701/3 of the TCC, the rule is that “Each signature affixed to the policy is considered as annotation of aval except for the signatures of ad- dressee or drawer ”. The spouse will be in the position of avaliste, but