The Middle East DNS Forum, organized by the Internet Assigned Names and Numbers Authority (ICANN), was held at Wyndham Grand Istanbul.
Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu, President of the Information Technologies and Communication Authority, attended the event organized to provide information on DNS-related topics and new developments in technologies.
In his speech at the event, President Karagözoğlu stated that the internet makes significant contributions to sustainable growth, innovation, and development, and that some statistics regarding internet usage in Türkiye are important, saying: “As of the end of 2022, the number of fixed-line subscribers reached approximately 11.2 million, while the number of mobile subscribers reached approximately 90.3 million. Looking at broadband data, there are approximately 19 million fixed subscribers and 71.7 million mobile subscribers, totaling 90.6 million broadband internet subscribers. The number of internet subscribers has increased by 2.8% compared to the same period of the previous year. In terms of fiber infrastructure, fiber length increased by 9.8% compared to the same period of the previous year as of the end of 2022, exceeding 517 thousand km.”
Karagözoğlu said, “The first legal regulation regarding internet domain names in Türkiye was introduced in 2008 with the Electronic Communications Law No. 5809 (ECL), and the duty and responsibility to determine policies regarding internet domain names were assigned to the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. With the Internet Domain Names Regulation, BTK was authorized to carry out the processes related to the registration of '.tr' extension domain names, to establish and operate TRABİS, or to ensure that a third party establishes and operates TRABİS within the procedures and principles determined by the Ministry.”
President Karagözoğlu stated, “With the activation of TRABİS, consumers can apply for domain names and renew them only through 'Registration Organizations' authorized by BTK, except in mandatory cases. Currently, 19 companies have been authorized as Registration Officers. In addition, BTK, in order to mediate the resolution of disputes arising from domain names—while preserving the complainants' right to apply to the court—has resolved more than 150 disputes since the activation of TRABİS through 2 institutions authorized as Dispute Resolution Service Providers with the dispute resolution mechanism to be applied in the resolution of disputes regarding '.tr' country code top-level domain names.”
President Karagözoğlu: Our goal is to complete the DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) transition in 2023 and establish a chain of trust for .tr domain names.
Emphasizing that they continue to work to provide a more secure, fast, and flexible architecture for DNS services, Karagözoğlu concluded his speech by saying, “In this context, as the first stage within the scope of the DNSSEC study to ensure the security of .tr domain names, the .tr zone was signed on April 12, 2023, and shared with IANA and DNS records. A timetable has been created for the signing of second-level zones and the DNSSEC integration of Registration Organizations, and relevant studies have been initiated for this purpose. Our goal is to complete the DNSSEC transition in 2023 and establish a chain of trust for .tr domain names.”