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THE OMBUDSMAN INSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF TÜRKİYE

COURTESY

Courtesy is a principle which requires public officials to behave in respectful manner
in relations with each other and citizens; be polite, helpful, cooperative and timely and
understand the problems of the citizens and make genuine efforts to produce solutions.
This principle refers to following courses of action:

• All sorts of acts, behaviours and behaviours of the public officials should be
respectful and courteous;

• The administration should act based on citizen-oriented approach, understand
the problems expressed by the individuals and guide them appropriately;

• If a mistake occurs which negatively affects the rights or interests of a member of
the public, the official shall apologise for it and endeavour to correct the negative
effects resulting from his or her mistake in the most expedient way.

Case Study

In the Decision dated 29/11/2014 of the Ombudsman Institution on the application
no. 2014/2608, it was stated that the applicant claimed that his/her son, who had a
disability, was deprived of the right to special education and requested relief.

Although it was evaluated after the examination of the case that no unfair treatment was
in question on the decision of referring the son in question to a Public Training Centre
with a view to ensuring that he would gain cognitive, daily, social and professional skills,
the expression on the subject complaint that “Directing handicapped individual, who
was excluded from compulsory education, to Public Training Centre with a view to
building his cognitive, daily social and professional skills” attracted notice. As using the
expression “person with disabilities” instead of the word “handicapped” was required by
the principle of courtesy, the fact that more diligence was expected in this regard was
emphasised on the section of the Decision titled “Evaluation in Terms of the Principles
of Good Administration”.
TRANSPARENCY

The principle of transparency refers to the administration’s fulfilment of its duty to give
information in systematic, easy, prompt and accessible manners to ensure the access of
natural and legal persons to information.

The principle of transparency requires diligence on the below points:
• Right of access to information of natural and legal persons should be secured by
law;

52 2019 ANNUAL REPORT