The Turkish police are allowed to ask any person to show ID, and refusing to comply may lead to a fine.

It can be used as a travel document to enter Northern Cyprus,[2] Bosnia and Herzegovina (planned),[3][4] Georgia (since 2011),[5] Moldova (since 2019),[6] Ukraine (since 2017, if arriving directly from Turkey),[7] Azerbaijan (since 1 April 2021, if arriving directly from Turkey),[8][9] and Serbia (planned)[10][11][12] instead of a passport.

Identity cards, theoretically obligatory for all citizens, male and female, existed already in the late Ottoman Empire.

[14] Turkey issued ID cards (Turkish: Nüfus Hüviyet Cüzdanı) with the 1927 census in Ottoman Arabic letters.

Turkey issued ID cards (Turkish: Nüfus Cüzdanı) for all citizens beginning in 1976.

During the application for new cards, fingerprints for all fingers and palm vein prints are collected and associated with the person.

The new cards also omit several pieces of information found on previous cards, such as; marital status, religion, blood type, place of issue, previous surname (for females), hometown (State, District, Village) and register numbers (volume, family and line numbers).