ECHR Lawyers Turkey: Applications Against Turkey at the European Court
Turkey has the largest number of pending cases at the European Court of Human Rights of any Council of Europe state — a distinction that reflects deep and systemic problems in the Turkish justice system. As of the end of 2025, more than 18,000 applications against Turkey were pending before the Court, representing over one third of the Court’s total caseload. In 2025 alone, 6,743 new applications from Turkey were registered — the highest number from any single state in Europe.
Our specialist ECHR lawyers have experience handling Turkish cases before the European Court. We represent Turkish journalists, political activists, lawyers, academics, civil servants dismissed under emergency decrees, Kurdish rights defenders, and other individuals whose rights have been violated by the Turkish state. If you have been denied a fair trial, arbitrarily detained, prosecuted for expressing political opinions, or subjected to unlawful discrimination, we can help you bring your case to Strasbourg.
Turkey’s Record at the European Court of Human Rights
Turkey’s relationship with the European Court has been one of the most strained in the Convention system. The statistics are stark. In 2025, the Court delivered 74 judgments on Turkey and found violations in 66 of them — a violation rate of 89%. The primary areas of violation were Article 6 (fair trial, 24 cases) and Article 5 (right to liberty and security, 21 cases).
Over 80% of current Turkish applications stem from the aftermath of the July 2016 attempted coup, with approximately 21,600 post-coup applications pending as of 2024. The Court has so far adjudicated 64 post-coup cases finding violations affecting 3,182 individuals, and has awarded a total of €12.5 million in damages. Turkey has 448 unimplemented judgments — representing persistent non-compliance with Court rulings.
While Turkey formally claims a compliance rate of 91% with ECtHR judgments, the reality of implementation of leading cases — those identifying structural or systemic problems — tells a different story. Fundamental reforms required by the Court in areas such as pre-trial detention, freedom of expression, and Kurdish rights have not been adequately implemented.
Post-2016 Coup Cases: Mass Dismissals and Detentions
The attempted military coup of 15 July 2016 triggered the most significant wave of human rights violations in Turkey’s recent history. The Turkish government declared a state of emergency and issued a series of emergency decree laws (Statutory Decree — Kanun Hükmünde Kararname, or KHK) that dismissed over 125,000 civil servants, judges, academics, teachers, military personnel, and others from their posts, closed thousands of institutions, and imposed restrictions on travel and assets — all without individual judicial review.
The European Court has found these dismissals and the associated detentions to violate multiple Convention rights. In a landmark 2025 judgment, Demirhan v. Turkey found 239 violations of Article 7 (no punishment without law) in a single case — the largest single finding of Article 7 violations in the Court’s history — relating to convictions based on alleged use of the ByLock messaging application as evidence of membership in a terrorist organisation. Approximately 8,500 similar complaints are pending before the Court.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has stated that the pattern of post-coup detentions and dismissals may constitute crimes against humanity. Despite this, the Turkish government has continued to treat persons dismissed or detained under post-coup measures as presumed terrorists, with limited avenues for effective domestic redress through the State of Emergency Inquiry Commission (Olağanüstü Hal İşlemleri İnceleme Komisyonu).
Journalist Persecution and Article 10: Freedom of Expression
Turkey is one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists, and Article 10 (freedom of expression) violations form a significant part of the Turkish caseload at the European Court. The Court found 15 Article 10 violations against Turkey in 2024 alone.
Ahmet Altan v. Turkey is among the most prominent journalist cases. Altan, a prominent Turkish author and journalist, was arrested in September 2016 and prosecuted on terrorism charges based on media articles and television appearances. His detention and prosecution raised fundamental questions about the criminalisation of journalistic activity and political commentary under Turkey’s broad anti-terrorism laws. The European Court found violations of Articles 5 and 10.
Turkey’s anti-terrorism legislation — particularly Article 7(2) of the Anti-Terrorism Law, which criminalises “propaganda in favour of a terrorist organisation” — has been systematically abused to prosecute journalists, academics, lawyers, and politicians who report on or criticise government policy. The European Court has consistently found that convictions under this provision violate Article 10 where the person convicted expressed opinions or reported on matters of public interest without inciting violence.
Selahattin Demirtaş and Political Persecution
Demirtaş v. Turkey (No. 2) is one of the most significant judgments in the Court’s history against Turkey. The Grand Chamber found that the continued pre-trial detention of the Kurdish HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) co-leader Selahattin Demirtaş violated Articles 5, 10, and 18 of the Convention. The Court concluded that the ulterior purpose of his detention was to suppress political pluralism and stifle freedom of political debate — a finding under Article 18 which is rarely made. Despite the judgment, Turkey has refused to release Demirtaş, making this a flagship case of Turkish non-compliance with ECHR rulings.
Kurdish Rights Cases Against Turkey
Kurdish rights cases represent a substantial part of Turkey’s ECHR caseload, spanning decades of conflict between the Turkish state and Kurdish political movements. The cases of Abdullah Öcalan v. Turkey — concerning the conditions of Öcalan’s detention on İmralı island — have been landmarks in the Court’s jurisprudence on inhuman treatment and the rights of detainees.
The military operations in south-eastern Turkey in 2015-2016, which resulted in extended curfews in Kurdish cities including Cizre, Sur (Diyarbakır), Nusaybin, and Silopi, generated hundreds of applications to the European Court. According to reports assessed by the Venice Commission, these operations resulted in approximately 536 extrajudicial killings and the displacement of some 500,000 people. The curfews themselves were found to lack an adequate legal basis.
More recently, the arrest of elected HDP mayors and members of parliament on terrorism charges, despite their non-violent political activities, has been the subject of Article 5, 10, and 18 applications. The European Court has consistently found that the bar for pre-trial detention must be higher for elected representatives, and that detention based solely on political expression violates the Convention.
Article 5: Arbitrary Detention in Turkey
Article 5 violations — relating to the right to liberty and security — are among the most frequently found violations against Turkey. As of September 2024, Turkey held approximately 52,066 people in pre-trial detention — one of the highest figures in Europe. Many of these detainees have been held for years before trial, in conditions that raise serious concerns about the adequacy of judicial review.
The European Court has found that Turkey’s pre-trial detention practices violate Article 5 in several respects: the legal basis for detention is frequently insufficient, domestic courts routinely fail to give individual and specific reasons for continued detention, and the “reasonable suspicion” threshold required by Article 5(1)(c) is interpreted too broadly to encompass vague or generalised terrorism suspicions without adequate evidence. The lack of any effective domestic judicial review of post-coup detentions — given the subordination of the judiciary to executive pressure — means that the domestic remedies for Article 5 violations in Turkey may not be effective.
How to Apply to the ECHR Against Turkey
Applying to the European Court against Turkey requires exhaustion of domestic remedies. For most applicants, this means pursuing your case through the Turkish courts to their final level, including the Constitutional Court (Anayasa Mahkemesi), which has an individual application procedure. The Constitutional Court received jurisdiction to hear individual human rights applications in 2012.
However, the effectiveness of the Constitutional Court in providing genuine redress has been questioned. For post-coup cases, the State of Emergency Inquiry Commission was established as an initial domestic remedy, but its effectiveness has been widely criticised by lawyers and human rights organisations. The European Court has addressed the adequacy of these remedies in individual cases.
Once domestic remedies are exhausted, you must apply to the European Court within four months of the final domestic decision. Our lawyers calculate this deadline carefully and ensure the application is filed in time. See our admissibility page for full details on admissibility requirements.
How Our Turkey ECHR Lawyers Can Help You
Our lawyers have a thorough understanding of the specific human rights challenges facing applicants in Turkey cases. We provide:
- Free case assessment — We evaluate the facts of your case against relevant Turkish case law from the European Court and assess your realistic prospects of success
- Domestic remedies analysis — We advise on whether the Constitutional Court application or State of Emergency Commission procedure must be exhausted, and whether those remedies are effective in your circumstances
- Urgent interim measures — Where you face serious and imminent risk to life, liberty, or safety, we can apply urgently to the European Court for interim measures
- Full application preparation — We draft the complete Strasbourg application, including factual narrative, detailed legal analysis of the relevant Convention articles, and just satisfaction claims
- Representation on admissibility and merits — We represent you through all stages of the ECHR procedure
- Enforcement — If the Court finds a violation, we support enforcement of the judgment through the Committee of Ministers
If you are a journalist, political activist, judge, lawyer, academic, civil servant, or any other person whose rights have been violated by Turkish state authorities, contact our team today for a free initial consultation. You can also read our comprehensive guide to filing a complaint to the ECHR.