A conversation with Merve Ayyüce Kizrak and Gülin Dizer, digital transformation experts in the Republic of Türkiye
Edition #106 Kizrak and Dizer talk ethical AI, digital accessibility, and share their experiences at the heart of Türkiye's digital efforts...
In this piece, first published by GovInsider, I sit down with Merve Ayyüce Kizrak and Gülin Dizer, both of whom have served in the Digital Transformation Office (DTO) of the Presidency of Turkey. In a wide-ranging conversation covering AI ethics, digital transformation and accessibility, I was struck by both their optimism and strong moral convictions about digital transformation - an encouraging note for any reader.
Both interviewees were speaking in a personal capacity, rather than on behalf of their government.
Gulin Dizer and Merve Ayyüce Kizrak’s optimism about the power of emerging technologies for good in government is infectious.
I first came across Kizrak through her blog on “Strategy to Success: AI in the Public Sector”. In it, she talks about the benefits of AI at each stage of the policy cycle, from effectively planning resource needs to finding irregularities in data during monitoring and evaluation.
A year and a half on, she tells me that she has “seen the integration of AI in the public sector exceed even [her] most optimistic expectations”, highlighting “service delivery and efficiency in the healthcare, education and disaster management sectors”. Similarly, Dizer talks about the “remarkable opportunities” of AI, showcasing examples in Türkiye in healthcare, tax processes and accessibility.
But for both Dizer and Kizrak, more striking than the optimism is the strong ethical commitment that underpins it. We speak before the Paris AI summit, and the conspicuous absence of the UK and US from signing its agreement, but in our conversation responsible use of AI by governments is front and centre.
Kizrak, who helped write the latest iteration of Türkiye ’s AI strategy, is clear that governments can only make AI use sustainable “by prioritizing ethics, security, inclusiveness and collaboration”. “If I were to rewrite the blog post today”, she says, “I would focus more on the responsible use of AI and AI resilience and adaptation. When adopting AI systems, transparency, fairness and trust are not just important, they are essential for citizens”.
The role of emerging technologies in promoting digital accessibility
Much of this work, especially for Dizer, focuses on digital accessibility. She calls it “a critical necessity for social and equal opportunity”, arguing that digital government can “only achieve its full potential when guided by a deep understanding of human needs and empathy”.
To illustrate this, and the need for “continuous feedback mechanisms to understand the needs of different groups within society”, she tells me a personal anecdote relating to her own visual impairment. On going to a notary for a transaction requiring a signature a couple of years ago, she “explained to the staff that due to [her] visual impairment, it would be easier if [her] husband wrote the necessary text, and [she] signed it”. After hearing this, “the notary staff stopped addressing [her] and began speaking only to [her] husband”.
She uses this example to show that bridging “accessibility challenges is often harder than addressing technical barriers”, and involve challenging social barriers and underlying stereotypes. “Thankfully”, she tells me, “the launch of a digital service on Türkiye ’s national portal e-Government gateway, allowing visually impaired individuals to complete notary processes without such hurdles, solved this particular issue”.
The e-Government gateway that she mentions is a website offering access to all e-government services from a single point, led by the Digital Transformation Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye. Thanks to strong user-design efforts, the site now comes with an application focused on Barrier-Free Communication for hearing impaired citizens, where they can video call or take part in a written interview rather than an audio call.
More broadly, accessibility has become an increasing priority within Türkiye ’s digital government landscape. The Ministry of Family and Social Services, for example, has been running similar “AILEM Accesssible Communication Centers” since 2022, providing Turkish Sign Language call centre operators to support those with hearing impairments who encounter problems with accessing online services. Accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, a citizen can request a two-way video call or instant message (instead of a phone call) to avoid having to visit government offices in person. Similarly, Türkiye is also an adopter of Europe’s “112 Accessible” emergency services initiative.
The AILEM Accessible Communications Centers are critical to Turkiye’s digital accessibility.
Scaling ethical AI use internationally
If Dizer’s views on digital accessibility provide an insight into how governments can use AI for good, then Kizrak is thinking about how to scale it. She has lots of experience in this – international cooperation is one of six pillars of Türkiye’s AI strategy, and she has been a participant in OECD’s AI Governance working group.
Just as service accessibility involves strong contextual design, so too does international cooperation rest on “adapting global standards to our national circumstances, rather than simply adopting them”. “Türkiye, like other countries, needs tailored international recommendations to develop policies that are in line with its societal values and governance structures”, she tells me. This is as true for digital accessibility cooperation, and lesson sharing, as it is for thinking about AI governance.
In the contexts of an increasingly splintered AI field, exhibited in recent weeks in the Paris AI summit, the rolling back of AI safety measures, and some countries’ responses to the rollout of DeepSeek, digital government experts could have cause to be frustrated at an apparent slowing of international cooperation.
But again Kizrak’s optimism is undimmed. “In the public sector, different priorities are inevitable”, she tells me. “When conflicting interests arise between government departments”, or indeed countries, about the use of AI, “it’s essential to create spaces where all voices can be heard and to encourage transparency and collaboration”. “Conflicts stem from a lack of understanding; open conversations can bridge those gaps”.
In short, she says, “collaboration is most successful when driven by empathy and purpose”. Here again, the confluence of a strong ethical pull and optimism. Dizer is no different. Returning to AI, she cites its “transformative potential inaccessibility” in “converting text to speech for visually impaired individuals or automatic captioning for the hearing impaired”, or “simplifying the process of automatically identifying deficiencies on websites and recommending solutions”.
But she is clear that this cannot occur without “understanding the context of visual content or cultural nuances” that come through human feedback and empathising with situations like those she experienced herself. These contexts are just as important when cooperating cross-border as they are when undertaking user design with those who would need to use accessible services.
Beyond the global headlines about technical cooperation, it is encouraging to see those driving digital government agendas still so positive about international cooperation, driven by the mantra that “the work you do should not only be a technical success but also make a meaningful difference in people’s lives”.