Fighting to obtain an identity card at the age of 66
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Fatma Selvi lives in the Molladavut village in Karaçoban, Erzurum in eastern Turkey. At her estimated age of 66, she has been fighting to obtain an identity card for four years.
Selvi cannot get treatment at the hospital because she does not have an identity card. A "temporary identity card" has been given to her after the efforts of her son Mehmet Doğan.
Doğan explains that no identity document was issued for her mother in her childhood and that her mother and her father both died approximately 40 years ago. Nobody applied in order to issue an identity card for her until now. Since she did not have any illnesses, she did not need an identity card until now. However, they have now made an application to the Karaçoban civil registration office four years ago, but they are not able to an identity card until now.
DNA tests
"Most recently a sibling DNA test was made in Muş Bulanık State Hospital and sent to Gaziantep," tells his son Doğan bianet.
But the response they received was that they were not able to do the DNA test in Gaziantep and that the family should go to the court and request a DNA test on the deceased mother and father. But the graves of Fatma Selvi's mother and her father are very old and there have been landslides, so the exact places of burial are unknown.
Her son says that Selvi is sick and that her legs hurt. She is 66 years old now and has health problems now and then. The hospitals cannot accept her for treatment because she does not have an identity card.
"How many citizens are unable to obtain an identity card?"
Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, İzmit MP of the People's Democratic Party (HDP) brought up the case of Fatma Selvi in the parliament.
Gergerlioğlu asked the reason for not giving her an identity card. He also asked which procedure she should follow in order to issue an identity card for her.
The MP also wanted to learn the number of citizens who are waiting for an identity card to be issued to them as of the date his parliamentary question is submitted. (EMK/PE)
Editor of bianet Women’s News (2018). Editor of bianet Women’s and LGBTI+ News from October 2018 to February 2025. She conducts workshops on gender-focused journalism and reporting on gender-based violence. She is among the founders of the Women and LGBTI+ Commission of the Journalists’ Union of Turkey (TGS). She is a board member of the TGS Istanbul Branch for the 2023–2027 term. She received the Musa Anter Journalism Award in 2011 and the Turkish Psychiatric Association’s Best News Award in 2024. She worked as a reporter for Cumhuriyet, BirGün, İMC TV, DİHA, Jinha, and Jin News, and also worked for local newspapers in Rize. Her news reports and articles have been published in Sivil Sayfalar, Yeşil Gazete, Journo, and trade magazines. She is one of the founding writers of GOR, a Hemşin culture magazine. She contributed writings to the books Yeşilden Maviye Karadenizden Kadın Portreleri, Sırtında Sepeti, and Medya ve Yalanlar. She was a bianet intern in 2000. She graduated from the Department of International Relations at Istanbul Bilgi University.
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