This is the English version of a Turkish article. The original, with further detail and linked petition templates, is at CİMER Başvurusu Nasıl Yapılır? Etkili Dilekçenin Kuralları.
The presidential communications centre (CİMER) is an administrative channel, not a judicial one, and its most important limitation is this: it does not suspend the time limit for bringing proceedings. The sixty-day period for challenging an administrative act keeps running. Where a time limit is running, an application there must therefore be pursued alongside preparation for proceedings, not instead of it.
A public body is not doing its job, a municipality leaves your application unanswered, or you think a practice is unlawful. The first route that comes to mind is usually a complaint to this centre.
It does work — but not on every subject and not at every stage. This article explains when it produces results, how to write an application that gets a real answer, and above all when relying on it costs you a right.
What Is It?
CİMER is the presidential communications centre. It is a channel resting on the right of petition under Article 74 of the Constitution and on the Freedom of Information Act (Law no. 4982).
Applications are made online with e-government credentials. A telephone line, the provincial and district governor's offices, and the post can also be used.
The centre does not itself decide anything. It forwards your application to the institution concerned and passes that institution's answer back to you. The real addressee is always the body whose job it is.
On Which Matters Does It Produce Results?
It is most effective where a body has not done what it should:
- failure to answer your application in time
- a service not provided: roads, infrastructure, refuse, noise enforcement
- a complaint about the conduct of a public official
- inability to obtain a document or information
- reporting a practice contrary to legislation
It produces no result on: disputes between two private parties (a neighbour, a tenant, a debt), the merits of pending litigation, requests to change a court decision, and complaints about judicial decisions. These belong to the courts, and an administrative channel cannot intervene there.
| Subject | Expected result |
|---|---|
| A public service failing; reporting neglect | Effective |
| A request for information or documents | Effective (as a freedom of information request) |
| Unauthorised building, pollution, noise | Effective: starts an inspection |
| Disciplinary complaint about an official | Partly effective: may start an inquiry |
| Withdrawal of a settled administrative act | Ineffective: proceedings are needed |
| Challenging a court decision | Ineffective: the judicial route is separate |
| A dispute between private parties | Ineffective |
The answer given is nonetheless valuable when preparing a statement of claim, because it sometimes reveals the reasons for the administrative act.
How Is an Effective Application Written?
Most applications are closed with a general answer because their subject is unclear. What improves your chances is concreteness.
- Write about one subject. Five complaints in one application all get answered superficially.
- Choose the right body. An application sent to the wrong body loses weeks in being redirected.
- Give dates, places and reference numbers. The date and reference of your earlier application, the address, the parcel number.
- State your request in one sentence. Not “that the necessary be done”, but “that the street light on X street be repaired”.
- Cite the basis. Which legislation, which obligation.
- Attach documents. Photographs, earlier correspondence, the notice served on you.
Keep your reference number. If the answer is inadequate you can apply again citing it, and show the history of the matter.
How Long Does an Answer Take?
Freedom of information requests are answered as a rule within fifteen working days; the period may be extended where information must be obtained from another unit. For complaints, the period varies with the subject and in practice can reach thirty days.
If the answer is inadequate or negative there are three routes: a fresh application; where a freedom of information request has been refused, an appeal to the Freedom of Information Review Board; and where the decision amounts to an administrative act, an action for annulment before the administrative courts.
Does It Suspend the Time Limit for Proceedings?
This is the most important sentence in this article. The period for bringing an action to annul an administrative act is as a rule sixty days, and an application to the centre does not suspend it.
The pattern seen often in practice is this: instead of challenging an administrative act, a person writes to the centre, waits two months for an answer, receives a negative one, and by the time they decide to sue the sixty days have long expired.
The right approach: when an administrative act is served on you, put the deadline in your calendar. There is no harm in also making an application, but the time limit keeps running. If the deadline is approaching, bring the action without waiting for the answer.
There is one exception: under Article 11 of the Administrative Procedure Act, an application to the superior authority for the act to be withdrawn, revoked or amended does suspend the time limit. But the application must be of that character; a general complaint may not have that effect.
The period for challenging an administrative act is as a rule sixty days, and an administrative complaint does not suspend it. Make the application by all means, but track the deadline separately; if the answer is slow, act before the period expires.