Transparency or surveillance? Citizen reporting tool operates in legal gray zone
ANKARA — On Feb. 12, Turkish influencer and OnlyFans star Merve Taşkın shared a social media post that placed her in house arrest. In the text, she had offered to be someone’s Valentine’s Day dinner date for 400,000 liras, about $11,000 dollars, at the time.
Two days later, she was detained by police and referred to a court that put her under judicial control on “obscenity charges.” In her next social media post, she said someone had reported her on CİMER, and remarked: “I don’t think eating a meal is a crime.”
CİMER, an acronym for the Presidency’s Communication Center, is an online communication platform where Turkish citizens can submit requests, suggestions and complaints to their government.
Established in 2015, it was developed “with the vision of strengthening the relationship between the state and citizen”, according to Fahrettin Altun, head of the Presidency’s Directorate of Communications, which runs the CİMER system.
The platform was also created to facilitate citizens’ constitutional right to petition the state. Yet the Constitutional Court last year struck down the decree under which CİMER operates, ruling a new legal framework was needed to keep the service online after Nov. 28, 2024.
Regulations remained unchanged and, nearly four months later, CİMER remains operational, but not without consequence. CİMER has been the starting point for many high profile court investigations in Turkey, ranging from Vedat Milor to the Newborn Gang and İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.
Originally introduced as a measure to increase state transparency, CİMER has become the go-to complaint tool for citizens, who analysts say are encouraged to report on a wide range of activities, including social media posts by Merve Taşkın.
With its legal status now in limbo, legal experts interviewed by Turkey recap question whether CİMER serves more as a conduit to boost citizens’ democratic representation or as a tool to diminish it through collective surveillance.
From BİMER to CİMER
In 2006, Turkey introduced the Prime Ministry Communication Center (BİMER), which served a similar function to CİMER before the Prime Ministry was abolished with the nation’s transition to an executive presidential system.
BİMER and CİMER were combined in 2015, after which CİMER became the nation’s sole communication platform between citizens and the state. The Directorate of Communications acts as the central node for the system, collecting and sending reports to relevant institutions and ministries.
CİMER serves as a more direct line to government organizations than email or phone calls. As a result, the system receives about 15,000 submissions per day from citizens, according to Altun, who noted reports also spiked following the Feb. 6, 2023 earthquakes.
Submissions can vary widely, from requests for state assistance to reports of alleged criminal activity. Citizens are allowed one submission per day and must file them with their names as the system does not allow for anonymized reporting.
Once submitted, some reports result in investigations and lawsuits while others don’t lead to any actions or judicial proceedings.
A state employee who spoke with Turkey recap on condition of anonymity said that CİMER speeds up the bureaucratic process because public institutions take CİMER messages “more seriously.”
Yet the source noted the platform’s simplicity can also invite more requests than other communication methods.
"People experience the comfort of making their requests or complaints online while drinking tea, rather than going to the institution with a signed document,” the state employee told Turkey recap.
“There are many requests in addition to complaints. If the same type of requests come from the same province, this accelerates the solution of the problem in that province,” the source added.
Though the source said the system’s ease of use also invites minor complaints or grievances from citizens, leading to inefficient outcomes as “less serious” messages still create additional work for public administrators.
A “culture of informing”
CİMER can also produce a “culture of informing”, sources told Turkey recap. The system allows citizens to report on other people, paving the way for personal denunciations with vague accusations such as "insulting the President" or "making terrorist propaganda."
Political scientist Dr. Ayşen Uysal, a professor at Dokuz Eylül University in İzmir, said reporting tools like CİMER make it possible for the government to control the “most remote corners” of the country and the smallest social circles.
“While it may not be possible to monitor everywhere with other surveillance tools, reports allow for monitoring and controlling even within the family,” Uysal told Turkey recap. “In this country, there are those who report their spouses to CİMER on the grounds of ‘insulting the president.’”
“The government can even keep opposition municipalities under surveillance in this way,” she continued. “In short, informers are the eyes and ears of the government everywhere."
Lawyer Mehmet Pehlivan said reports on CİMER can be politically motivated, as well, noting there is a thin line between crime reporting in a democratic society and informing activities in an authoritarian society.
“The fundamental difference between these two situations is that in states governed by the rule of law, reports are evaluated based on legal and ethical criteria, and individuals' fundamental rights and freedoms are protected,” Pehlivan told Turkey recap.
“However, there is no doubt that CİMER, which is claimed to facilitate the act of informing, often carries a political motive [which produces a] risky situation for a democratic state of law," he added.
In addition, the state employee noted the system lacks sufficient protection mechanisms against false or politically motivated submissions.
"It is a fact that false accusations and personal hostility make the system inoperable. But the problem is not the existence of the report or CİMER,” the source said. “Petitions are not filtered correctly due to the work of uninformed, incompetent, unqualified officials, in general. CİMER often sends the request to the relevant institution without examination.”
In this context, Uysal emphasized that CİMER can disregard the presumption of innocence.
"Our lives can be ruined at any moment with false reports,” she told Turkey recap. “An informer can put you in a Kafkaesque environment at any moment. A report made without presenting any evidence may require you to struggle for years to prove your innocence."
İmamoğlu’s “fake diploma” report
Because CİMER connects citizens’ complaints with relevant state institutions, another widespread criticism is that the system has become a pressure tool against municipal governments.
The ongoing investigation over the validity of İstanbul Mayor İmamoğlu’s university diploma was originally sparked by a 2020 CİMER complaint alleging it was “fake”.
At the time, as is the case now, İmamoğlu was being considered as a potential presidential contender, which requires a university degree in Turkey. Following the initial CİMER complaint, İstanbul University responded with a letter stating that İmamoğlu’s diploma was not fake, and the complaint file was closed.
Then, in September 2024, the same complaint was re-submitted, but instead of directing the message to the university, the Directorate of Communications sent it to a prosecutor's office, which then launched the current investigation against İmamoğlu.
"This and many similar reports serve to discredit mayors,” professor Uysal said. “A large amount of information, whether true or not, is collected in a single center in this way. What is done with this information is up to that center, [whether it is] to make their opponent suffer, to wear them out in court, or to file it for use when needed one day."
Separately, attorney Pehlivan believes that public damages should not be overlooked as part of the rights violations caused by such investigations.
"As a result of false reports made through CİMER, and even those made solely for the purpose of causing victimization, tens of millions of lira of public resources have been used in investigating citizens, in addition to violating the right not to be stigmatized and the presumption of innocence,” Pehlivan said. “No sanctions are applied against the reporter."
Why is CİMER still operating?
Turkey’s main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) took a presidential decree issued in 2022 – which forms the legal basis for the CİMER system – to the Constitutional Court, the sole authority on this matter.
In its court filing, the party stated that CİMER was unconstitutional, stating that "the rule related to the right to legal remedies and petition and information rights should be regulated by law, and in its current form, it causes rights violations."
The Constitutional Court accepted the claim of violation and with its decision on February 28, 2024, annulled the decree. The court then stated the CİMER system could only proceed within a revised legal framework and gave Turkish parliament, which has legislative power, nine months to create one.
CİMER was permitted to continue its activities within the nine-month grace period, which ended on Nov. 28, 2024. According to the Constitutional Court ruling, CİMER currently has no legal basis for its continued operations as a new legal framework was not established by parliament.
"In a state of law, legal basis is important because all activities, transactions and actions of the state must comply with predetermined legal rules. Any practice without a legal basis threatens the rights and freedoms of individuals,” attorney Pehlivan said.
“Otherwise, trust in justice and law in society is shaken, citizens are victimized and arbitrariness becomes inevitable,” he added.
At the time of writing, it appears the government has largely sidestepped the Constitutional Court's decision on CİMER. The main change implemented after the ruling has been the removal of the "report" or “ihbar” category from the CİMER web site. Yet, citizen-submitted reports continue.
Referencing her a recent personal experience, Uysal noted citizens can still submit reports under the “complaint” or “şikayet” category in CİMER.
"A student reported me to CİMER at the end of January on the grounds that I was 'teaching harmful things' in classes. CİMER forwarded this report to YÖK [the Council of Higher Education], and YÖK forwarded it to the university. The Dean's office then asked me for an 'explanation,’” she said. “This, in brief, is the journey of a report."
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