Turkish Identification Number ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Kimlik Numarası or abbreviated as ''T.C. Kimlik No.'') is a unique

personal identification number A personal identification number (PIN), or sometimes redundantly a PIN number or PIN code, is a numeric (sometimes alpha-numeric) passcode used in the process of authenticating a user accessing a system. The PIN has been the key to facilitatin ...

that is assigned to every citizen of

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. Foreigners residing in Turkey at least six months for any purpose receive a Foreigner Identification Number, which is different from the Turkish Identification Number.

Purpose

The purpose of identification number's introduction is to resolve the problems that arise by same names of different citizens and to speed up the information transfer between the public institutions. With the identification number, services like

taxation A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, o ...

security" \n\n\nsecurity.txt is a proposed standard for websites' security information that is meant to allow security researchers to easily report security vulnerabilities. The standard prescribes a text file called \"security.txt\" in the well known locat ...

voting Voting is a method by which a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, can engage for the purpose of making a collective decision or expressing an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect hol ...

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. ...

social security Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...

health care Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health ...

military recruitment Military recruitment refers to the activity of attracting people to, and selecting them for, military training and employment. Demographics Gender Across the world, a large majority of recruits to state armed forces and non-state armed g ...

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

and many others can be carried out more quickly, rationally and reliably.

History

The Turkish Identification Number was introduced on October 28, 2000 in conjunction with the Act No. 3080, which amended the initial Population Registration Act No. 1587, and applied to all citizens born after 1840, dead or alive around 120 million people at that time. It was issued by the 923 registration offices at

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

level across the country. From January 1, 2003 on, all public institutions integrated the personal identification number in their certificates and documents like

identity card An identity document (also called ID or colloquially as papers) is any document that may be used to prove a person's identity. If issued in a small, standard credit card size form, it is usually called an identity card (IC, ID card, citizen ca ...

passport A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that contains a person's identity. A person with a passport can travel to and from foreign countries more easily and access consular assistance. A passport certifies the perso ...

, international family book,

driving license A driver's license is a legal authorization, or the official document confirming such an authorization, for a specific individual to operate one or more types of motorized vehicles—such as motorcycles, cars, trucks, or buses—on a public r ...

, form and manifesto they issue to citizens. The Identity Card Serial Number formerly in use was not needed any more and so cancelled.

MERNIS Project

Turkish Identification Number was developed and put in service in context of a project called Central Registration Administration System ( tr, Merkezi Nüfus İdaresi Sistemi, abbreviated as MERNİS), The idea for the project was born in 1972 after the Population Registration Law was enacted. Following infrastructural works done by the

State Planning Organization State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

and later by the

Middle East Technical University Middle East Technical University (commonly referred to as METU; in Turkish, ''Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi'', ODTÜ) is a public technical university located in Ankara, Turkey. The university emphasizes research and education in engineering a ...

, the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

financially supported the project in 1996 with credit. The cost of the project amounted to US$35 million. Personal data of 70 million Turkish citizens, 5 million Turks living abroad and 24 million dead were recorded in a databank with the help of the personal identification number using a special software that was developed for US$400,000. Moreover, 23 million records of married, divorced and naturalized people were added giving identification number. After accomplishment of the initial issue of the personal identification number, it is being given only to newborns and naturalized people. The MERNİS database is in online service since the end of November 2002, however not fully open to the public for secrecy of private data. However leaked copies of the database have surfaced following a security breach by staff who sold copies on DVD in 2010, and which became widely available on the internet via

peer-to-peer file sharing Peer-to-peer file sharing is the distribution and sharing of digital media using peer-to-peer (P2P) networking technology. P2P file sharing allows users to access media files such as books, music, movies, and games using a P2P software program th ...

services in early 2016.

Identification number

The identification number is a unique 11-digit number given by the MERNIS computer on the basis of the citizen's registration record that is kept by the registration office. The number does not reflect any personal information about the citizen. It is not possible to change the identification number once applied.

Query of the identification number

The identification number can be obtained by the registration offices or online at internet via the Ministry of Interior's portal.

References

External links

Validation of Turkish Identification Number in Python
at Caner BASARAN's software repository. {{National identification numbers National identification numbers Government of Turkey