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THE OMBUDSMAN INSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF TÜRKİYE

It is extremely important that the practices based on the above-mentioned four pillars
in fighting against the pandemic must be reviewed in line with the main principles
of good administration such as respect for human rights, lawfulness, equality and
absence of discrimination, transparency, providing information and so on. Prepared
in line with these principles, the Report consists of four chapters. The first chapter
focuses on the services provided and the activities conducted in the field of healthcare.
The second chapter highlights the administrative measures taken in order to ensure
isolation and to curb the spread of the virus. The third chapter is about the economic
decisions and the measures taken in this regard. And finally, the fourth chapter is an
overview of examinations and findings relating to these three areas. With this Report,
a general evaluation has been made by taking into consideration the ongoing fight
against the coronavirus not just in Türkiye but also across the world and accordingly,
some recommendations have been developed. The general evaluation of actions and
procedures of the government and the administration, the decisions as well as the
measures taken in this regard toward Türkiye’s fight against the pandemic has been made
considering their compliance with the principles of good administration.

Also, analyzing the perspectives of the countries in fight against the pandemic which
has hit the whole world, their ways of managing the process as well as their ability to
manage the process, the success criteria of Türkiye has been tried to be created. It has been
considered that it is the duty of the Ombudsman Institution of Türkiye, as an institution
to seek legal remedies, to reveal that Türkiye has adopted a humanitarian approach to the
disease and attached great importance to human health in the meantime. In this regard,
Türkiye has been compared with various countries in terms of priorities in fight against
the pandemic as well as attitudes towards humans and human health.

The Ombudsman Institution of Türkiye being one of the key institutions to seek legal
remedies in the country has received many complaints about the shortcomings in
delivery of public services due to the pandemic since the first positive case reported in
the country. Some of these complaint applications have been related to “health” while
some of them have been in the field of “public order” and “economic measures”. These
applications mostly focus on demands on improving the rights and working conditions
of health professionals. In addition, majority of the applications have been about the
problems faced in accessing masks, shortcomings at the hospitals in the delivery of
routine heath care services apart from the coronavirus, the problems faced in access
to the bank loans provided for citizens. After carefully examining these complaints,
it has been observed that many of these problems have been solved with the updated
measures.
As mentioned in the Report, the Ombudsman Institution issued a Recommendation
regarding the complaints filed by citizens who experiences certain problems with the
banks following the economic measures taken to support citizens during the pandemic.

2020 ANNUAL REPORT 61