UETS vs KEP: Understanding Turkey's Dual Electronic Notification System

#legal #government #security #architecture

Turkey has two separate but often confused electronic notification systems: KEP and UETS. If you're building software for the Turkish legal market, understanding the distinction is critical.

UETS: Ulusal Elektronik Tebligat Sistemi

UETS (National Electronic Notification System) is operated exclusively by PTT (Turkey's postal service) and is used only by courts and government agencies to serve legal notifications.

Who Gets UETS Notifications?

All lawyers registered with a bar association
All companies registered in the trade registry
All government agencies
Anyone who voluntarily registers

The Mandatory 5-Day Rule

// Tebligat Kanunu Madde 7/a implementation
function calculateServiceDate(deliveryDate) {
    const GRACE_PERIOD_DAYS = 5;
    const serviceDate = new Date(deliveryDate);
    serviceDate.setDate(serviceDate.getDate() + GRACE_PERIOD_DAYS);

    // If recipient opens before day 5, service date = open date
    // If not opened by day 5, service date = day 5
    return serviceDate;
}

function calculateDeadline(serviceDate, responseDays) {
    const deadline = new Date(serviceDate);
    deadline.setDate(deadline.getDate() + responseDays);
    return deadline;
}

// Example: Court gives 15 days to respond
const delivered = new Date('2026-09-15');
const served = calculateServiceDate(delivered); // Sept 20
const deadline = calculateDeadline(served, 15); // Oct 5

Key Technical Differences

Aspect	KEP	UETS
Operator	Multiple licensed providers	PTT only
Direction	Bidirectional (anyone → anyone)	One-way (government → citizen)
Protocol	SMTP/S with evidence layer	Custom PTT protocol
Authentication	E-Imza (qualified certificate)	TC Kimlik + SMS OTP
Evidence format	CAdES/XAdES signed XML	PTT proprietary
API availability	Some providers offer REST/SOAP	No public API
Address format	`user@hsXX.kep.tr`	TCKN-based (no email format)

Common Confusion Points

1. "My lawyer says I need a KEP address for court"

Wrong. Court notifications come via UETS, not KEP. But your lawyer might need KEP for sending ihtarname (formal notices) to opposing parties.

2. "Can I send a UETS notification?"

No. Only courts, tax offices, municipalities, and authorized government bodies can send via UETS. Private parties use KEP.

3. "Are KEP and UETS addresses the same?"

No. KEP address: firma@hs01.kep.tr. UETS address: derived from your TCKN (national ID) or tax number.

Architecture for LegalTech Developers

If you're building a case management system:

┌─────────────────┐
│  Case Management │
│     System       │
├─────────────────┤
│                 │
│  ┌───────────┐  │     ┌─────────────────┐
│  │ KEP Module│──┼────▶│ KEP Provider API│ (for sending notices)
│  └───────────┘  │     └─────────────────┘
│                 │
│  ┌───────────┐  │     ┌─────────────────┐
│  │UETS Reader│──┼────▶│ PTT e-Tebligat  │ (for receiving court docs)
│  └───────────┘  │     │ (screen scraping)│
│                 │     └─────────────────┘
│  ┌───────────┐  │
│  │ Deadline  │  │  ← Calculates response deadlines
│  │ Calculator│  │     from UETS service dates
│  └───────────┘  │
└─────────────────┘

Open Source Tools

We're building open-source tools for Turkey's e-transformation ecosystem:

Check out all projects: github.com/eimza-kep

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