Strasbourg protestors to demand swift action from CoE, ECtHR on rights violations in Turkey

Thousands of Turkish expatriates in Europe will march past the Council of Europe (CoE) headquarters in Strasbourg on Tuesday and gather for a demonstration in front of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to protest the inaction of these institutions on widespread rights violations in Turkey.

Similar protests were held in 2022 and 2023 in front of the ECtHR, attended by hundreds of victims of a Turkish government purge following a failed coup in Turkey in 2016, as well as activists and EU parliamentarians.

The ECtHR is accused by victims of human rights violations in Turkey, which increased after the coup attempt when the government launched a crackdown on non-loyalist citizens under the pretext of an anti-coup fight, of failing to process victims’ applications expeditiously and in some cases making judgments in favor of the Turkish government. The Council of Europe is accused of not using the tools at its disposal to force Ankara to abide by ECtHR rulings that are in favor of victims.

Turkey has defied ECtHR rulings faulting Turkey for violating the rights of imprisoned philanthropist Osman Kavala and Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtaş.

In addition to these cases, a local court in Turkey again convicted former teacher Yüksel Yalçınkaya of terrorism last month, despite the ECtHR finding a violation of his fundamental rights last year. The Kayseri 2nd High Criminal Court sentenced him to six years, three months, the same as his original conviction in 2017.

The Grand Chamber of the ECtHR ruled in September 2023 that Turkey had violated three articles of the European Convention on Human Rights in Yalçınkaya’s case: Article 6 concerning the right to a fair trial, Article 7 on no punishment without law and Article 11 on freedom of assembly and association.

The Grand Chamber based its verdict on Yalçınkaya’s alleged use of the mobile phone app ByLock, membership in a labor union and an association linked to the faith-based Gülen movement, and an account he had at the now-closed Bank Asya, all of which are considered evidence of membership of the Gülen movement and criminal evidence.

The Gülen movement, inspired by Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, is accused by the Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of masterminding the failed coup and is designated as a “terrorist organization,” although the movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.

Despite the ECtHR ruling that ordered the Turkish government to redress Yalçınkaya as well as submit an action plan to address systemic issues that resulted in thousands of unjust convictions, detentions and prosecutions of alleged Gülen followers continue based on activities that have been classified as criminal by Turkish courts, but not by the ECtHR.

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has been ignoring calls to speed up the monitoring of Turkey’s compliance with the ECtHR judgements.

The protest is organized by the Peaceful Actions Platform, an umbrella organization of 24 civil society groups. The protest will be broadcast live by MC EU TV and the platform’s YouTube channel.

In a press statement the Peaceful Actions Platform called on the Council of Europe to take immediate action and warned that its silence on Turkey’s defiance is weakening the European human rights system.

During the demonstration, the protesters will hand a letter to the president of the court, Marko Bošnjak, urging the court to help victims of rights violations in Turkey by swiftly finalizing their applications.

Mini-concerts by Turkish singers and other activities will take place during the demonstration.

Following the abortive putsch, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and carried out a massive purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti- coup fight. More than 130,000 public servants, including 4,156 judges and prosecutors, as well as 29,444 members of the armed forces were summarily removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by emergency decree- laws subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny.

Since the coup attempt, a total of 705,172 people have been investigated on terrorism or coup-related charges due to their alleged links to the movement. There are currently 13,251 people in prison who are in pre-trial detention or convicted of terrorism in Gülen-linked trials.

Thousands of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown. Some of these people had to take illegal and risky journeys in boats to Greece because their passports had been revoked by the government.

Between June 2023 and June 2024, Turkish authorities carried out a total of 5,543 police operations and arrested 1,595 people linked to the movement.