According to the Statement on General Assembly Meetings of Companies issued by Internal Commerce Directorate of the Ministry of Commerce of Turkish Republic published on 20.03.2020; for the ordinary general assembly meetings of joint stock and limited companies which were previously invited by the management bodies in accordance with the Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102 and the company agreement; were given the opportunity to be canceled by a decision to be taken by the management bodies, without waiting for the meeting to be held.
As it is known, in the Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102, joint stock and limited companies are expected to hold ordinary general assembly meetings within three months from the end of each activity period. On the other hand, the calendar year is generally preferred by the companies as the activity period, which reveals the necessity of completing the ordinary general assembly meetings until the end of March.
In order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 (coronavirus) epidemic, some measures were taken for the board meetings of companies, especially during this period that company general assembly meetings are generally held. In this context, for the ordinary general assembly meetings of joint stock and limited companies which were previously invited by the management bodies in accordance with the Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102 and the company agreement; were given the opportunity to be canceled by a decision to be taken by the management bodies, without waiting for the meeting to be held. Although the announcement requests are handled by Turkish Trade Registry Gazette Directorate; the example of announcement text can be accessed through the link: https://www.ticaretsicil.gov.tr/view/popup/popup.php
Pursuant to article 1527 of the Turkish Commercial Code, in order to prevent the epidemic for companies that use the electronic general assembly system and want to hold a general assembly meeting, in order to prevent the outbreak, the shareholders they are advised to use their discretion on participating the general assembly meetings electronically without participating in the physical environment. Within this framework, for companies which do not have a provision that allows board meetings to be held in electronic environment in company contracts or articles of association, measures have been taken to ensure that companies, can hold their meetings through the “Electronic General Assembly Meeting System” and “Electronic Board System”.
