Turkey’s Constitutional Court has rejected the petitions of 70,071 people who were purged from state institutions by means of decrees issued under an ongoing state of emergency in the country on the grounds that domestic judicial remedies have not yet been exhausted.
The court announced on Friday that it had rejected the petitions because the purge victims had not yet applied to a state of emergency (OHAL) commission established to investigate applications directly related to the loss of state jobs through the issuance of government decrees.
Since a failed coup in Turkey on July 15, 2016, the government has sacked over 150,000 people from civil service jobs and put more than 50,000 in pretrial detention on charges of coup involvement.
Among the arrested purge victims are two judges from the top court of the country who are accused of coup involvement.
Meanwhile, the European Court of Human Rights (EctHR) has declined to review purge victim applications until all domestic remedies have been exhausted in Turkey. The European court’s decision has been criticized by human rights defenders due to the lack of judicial independence in the country.