Approximately 23,400 applications from Turkey are pending before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), making it the highest case-count country in 2023, according to statistics from the court.
ECtHR President Síofra O’Leary held a press conference on Thursday that was live-streamed on the internet, giving an overview of the court’s activities in 2023 and presenting statistics for the past year.
Turkey, which tops the list of countries with cases awaiting judgment with 23,397 applications, corresponding to 34.2 percent of the total, is followed by the Russian Federation, with 12,453 applications; Ukraine (8,737); Romania (4,171); and Italy, with 2,743 applications pending.
Turkey remained the highest case-count country in 2023, after replacing Russia a year earlier. Russia was excluded from the Council of Europe in March 2022 due to its war on Ukraine. In September 2022 Russia ceased to be a party to the European Convention on Human Rights. The ECtHR is reviewing applications from Russia filed before Sept. 16, 2022.
O’Leary said the court ruled on some 38,260 applications throughout 2023. While 74,650 applications were pending at the close of 2022, the figure declined by 8 percent to around 68,450 by the end of 2023, the statistics showed.
In addition, according to the ECtHR’s data on violations of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) by article and state, at least one violation was found to have been committed in 72 of the 78 adjudicated cases from Turkey. Among those, 17 involved violations of the right to a fair trial, 16 involved violations of the right to liberty and security, 16 involved violations of the right to freedom of assembly and association, 15 involved violations of the right to respect for private and family life and 10 involved violations of the right to freedom of expression.
The number of friendly settlements in applications from Turkey declined from 10 in 2022 to three in 2023, the statistics further showed.
Complaints related to arrests, prosecutions and dismissals in the public sector following a coup attempt in 2016 make up 96 percent of the applications against Turkey, O’Leary said.
She added that the court has been prioritizing such cases, with the Grand Chamber announcing its decision on the Yalçınkaya case within a short period of eight months.
The Grand Chamber of the ECtHR ruled in late September that Turkish courts’ conviction of Yüksel Yalçınkaya, a teacher, of terrorism over activities such as the use of a mobile application or having an account at a certain bank was unlawful, in a decision that could have far-reaching implications for thousands facing similar charges in Turkey.
The court faulted Turkey due to violations of three articles of the convention: Article 6, which concerns the right to a fair trial; Article 7 on no punishment without law; and Article 11 on freedom of assembly and association.
According to O’Leary, the judgment was handed down in September 2023, following the hearing in January of the same year.
She said the case is important since 8,000 other cases against Turkey relate to a similar issue, adding that the court recognizes the existence of a “systemic problem.”
More than 130,000 civil servants were removed from their jobs in a massive purge launched by the Turkish government following the coup attempt on the grounds that they had links to the faith-based Gülen movement.
Tens of thousands of people in Turkey have been facing terrorism charges due to their links to the movement, accused by the Turkish government of masterminding the failed coup in 2016 and labeled as a terrorist organization. The movement strongly denies any involvement in the failed putsch or any terrorist activity.