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A guarantee agreement creates an independent undertaking, while a surety agreement is accessory to the main debt. This distinction directly affects the scope of liability and available defenses.
Turkish law protects the will of the surety through formal requirements such as qualified written form and, in relevant cases, spousal consent. Failure to meet these conditions may create validity issues.
As a rule, no. The guarantor's defenses are generally limited to the terms of the guarantee itself; disputes between the principal debtor and the creditor usually do not affect the guarantor.
In practice, bank letters of guarantee are often treated on a guarantee basis and allow collection independent from the principal debt. Still, each document must be interpreted on its own wording.
