Interior Minister Soylu says state-developed app on his phone can identify anyone by their photo

In a YouTube video, Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu used a state-developed app on his phone that can identify everyone with their photo. Soylu has faced criticism in the past after his photographs with crime suspects circulated on social media, in which he defended himself by claiming that he did not know the individuals in the photos.

Monday May 08 2023 08:06 pm

Duvar English

Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu on May 7 was a guest on the famous technology youtube channel Shiftdelete. The platform's founder took a tour of Istanbul with the “national automobile” TOGG used by Soylu and examined Soylu's phone as a part of the program.

Soylu explained the special applications developed by the Interior Ministry and demonstrated how they used a stat-developed app named “KİM (Who in English).” He took a photo of the program’s host with the application, and all the information about him was displayed on the screen of his phone within seconds.

The Turkish state has been collecting biometric data on its citizens, particularly since the development of the new ID cards in 2017. During the application for the new ID cards, every citizen presents their biometric photo and fingerprints to the civil registry offices.

Soylu's name is often brought to the agenda with photographs taken with people involved in crime from drug suspects to fraud suspects. Some of them were photographed in his office room. Soylu has defended himself by stating that he does not know the people with whom he had their photos taken.