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THE OMBUDSMAN INSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF TÜRKİYE 2018 ANNUAL REPORT

2.3 Interaction with Stakeholders
2.3.1 Relations with Public Organizations and Civil Society Organizations

The Institution is obligated to protect individual rights and freedoms against the Administration,
and its another purpose is to provide guidance for public officials, to increase the quality of
public services provided, and to contribute to promotion of good governance principles in
Türkiye.

In this regard, the Institution assumes very important functions to the benefit of not only
the citizens but also to the public organizations. Its duty towards citizens is to guarantee that
public organizations provide high quality, timely and rightful services while its duty towards
the public organizations is to verify that the services provided serve the purpose and are fair.

The civil society organizations play an effective role in the functioning of the Ombudsman.
In this context, our Institution attaches great importance to establishing communication and
cooperation with the Administrations and civil society organizations which are its primary
stakeholders with a view to preventing violations of rights, spreading the culture of seeking
legal remedies as well as achieving the objective of good governance. Some of the activities
carried out in 2018 with these stakeholders are as follows:

◊ Visits to Administrations and civil society organizations within the activities under
the “Meetings with citizens and provincial working visits” (e.g, Visits to cities such
as Kayseri, İzmir, Tunceli, Yozgat, Diyarbakır, Siirt, Bitlis, Kırklareli, Edirne, and
Eskişehir)
During these visits, regional meetings with the headmen, representatives of the civil society
organizations, local governments and other relevant representatives of these cities were held, and
the problems of the city and possible solutions were discussed.

◊ Visit to UNICEF (February 2018), Visit to Confederation of Public Employees Trade
Union (KESK) (October 2018), Visit to Kamu-Sen (Public Employees Trade Union)
(October 2018) and many other visits to the Ministries, agencies, etc.

Communication and Cooperation Meetings with Public Organizations
In 2018, the Chief Ombudsman Şeref Malkoç paid courtesy visits to the newly appointed
Ministers such as Minister of Justice, Minister of Interior, Minister of Environment and
Urbanization, Minister of Trade, Minister of Health, Minister of National Defense etc. During
these visits, the activities of the Ombudsman Institution were introduced. Additionally, in
September and October, meetings were held with the Deputy Ministers to inform them about
the Institution and its activities.

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