Erdoğan aide boasts about increase in number of people asking for help from presidency
Petitions to Turkey's Presidential Communications Center have increased by 90 percent since 2020, Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun boasted on Jan. 13, although the widespread use of the presidency's online portal is in fact a sign of the public's general mistrust in public agencies.
Duvar English
Petitions to Turkey's Presidential Communications Center (CİMER) increased by 90 percent since 2020, with a total of six million inquiries received, Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun boasted on Jan. 13.
CİMER is an online portal that allows citizens to make complaints to the Presidential Communications Center, without restrictions on the content of their grievances.
The widespread use of the CİMER online system is often an indication of other public agencies' failure to solve citizens' issues, leaving them no choice but to petition the presidency.
"CİMER is one of the best examples of participatory democracy," Altun said on Turkish Police Radio on Jan. 13.
As the content of the petitions are not monitored closely, some citizens have been noted to ask seemingly small favors from the head of state, like a recent report of a young woman who asked CİMER to help reunite her grandparents.
Altun also said that CİMER was the largest public communications portal in the world and that it was a service that would go down in history for its contributions to public communication.