The intermediary function of Turkey’s legislative ombudsman in resolving public disputes

This article focuses on the function of legislative ombudsman in Turkey in resolving public disputes to understand its intermediary position between public institutions and citizens. Since its establishment in 2012 under the Turkish Grand National Assembly, the Ombudsman Institution of Turkey has resolved 80,535 public disputes. Although the intermediary function of ombudsman has been unexplored in the literature, with studies focusing more on legal and administrative functions, the Turkish context shows that the adoption of intermediary methods enhances the dispute resolution capacity of this institution. To understand the function of intermediary methods in increasing the dispute resolution capacity of ombudsman, this article empirically analyzes 1003 cases resolved via friendly settlement, an intermediary method adopted by the Ombudsman Institution of Turkey since 2017. This study reveals that intermediary methods make limited but positive contribution to the dispute resolution capacity of ombudsman by increasing the interaction between the parties.