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THE OMBUDSMAN INSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF TÜRKİYE

Since its establishment in 2013, our institution has signed 9 bilateral cooperation
agreements. In this context, this number increased to 10 with the signing of a
memorandum of understanding with the Djibouti Ombudsman in 2020. Other
countries with bilateral cooperation are Niger, Ukraine, Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Azerbaijan, Russian Federation, Kyrgyzstan and Iran. We made mutual
visits with ambassadors, representatives of ombudsman institutions and human rights
institutions.

We attached importance to cooperation with civil society organizations (CSOs),
professional organizations, trade unions and bar associations. We held regular meetings
and exchanged views with many CSOs and professional organizations. We held meetings
with 600 local CSOs representatives in provincial meetings held in the provinces of
Kocaeli, Diyarbakır, Mardin, Nevşehir, Kilis, Trabzon, Mersin, Muş, Bingöl in
order to spread the culture of seeking legal remedies.
We shared the decisions of the institution with the public via press. We appeared on press
for 13,618 times in 2020. In some of the provinces visited during the year, interviews
were given to local and national media. We participated in live broadcasts of a total of
29 local radios via phone, as well as live broadcasts of local televisions, as well as local
media channels broadcasting via social media.

Due to the expiration of my term as Chief Ombudsman and also the 4-year term of
4 Ombudsmen on 5 December 2020, Ombudsman elections were held in the Joint
Committee comprising of the members of the Committee on Petitions Commission
and the Committee on Human Rights Inquiry. As a result of the election, I have been
re-elected as the Chief Ombudsman for a second term by the General Assembly of the
Turkish Grand National Assembly.

As Ombudsman Institution, particularly in the fields of justice, equity and human rights
areas of our country, we will continue our works in line with the 2023, 2053 and 2071
targets. We are preparing our strategic plan for the 2022-2027 period in this direction.
In this plan, we give priority to the activities that focus on the good administration
principles. We will continue to work with all our efforts to ensure that our institution is
recognized by all of our citizens and the culture of seeking legal remedies is widespread
in all age groups, occupational groups and in every corner of the country.

Human rights violations, racism, Islamophobia and discrimination that occur all
over the world will be reported by the Human Rights Center which has been newly
established within our institution.

We will carry out training activities on human rights, especially for the Turks living
in Europe, we will prepare materials on right to legal remedies. In addition, we will

16 2020 ANNUAL REPORT