4 mln Turkish IDs lost in three years

Meltem Özgenç – ANKARA

More than 4 million Turkish people have lost their national identification cards over the past three years, according to data revealed amid government plans to introduce modernized identification cards for Turkish citizens.

A total of 4,065,000 people have lost their personal identification cards or had them stolen over the past three years, according to data from the Turkish Interior Ministry’s Population and Citizenship Affairs. The data also revealed that 1,385,000 people lost their identity cards in 2015 alone, while 1,378,000 were lost in 2014 and 1,302,000 cards went missing in 2013.

A law to introduce new, modernized identification cards was passed in early January, as part of Turkey’s steps towards becoming a European Union member state. The new cards will include a chip carrying the owner’s personal details, as well as biometric data and other information, including the owner’s family records, stored in an electronic database, according to the article passed in parliament in Ankara on Jan. 13. 

In addition to uncopiable biometric data, an automated system will be established to manage the population registry, which will prevent the use of the cards by anyone other than their owner in the event they are lost or stolen.