Former ECHR judge Rıza Türmen assesses Demirtaş’s ECHR decision



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– Following the ECHR decision, “Selahattin Demirtaş should be released,” President Erdogan said: “Your request for release is hypocritical. The ECHR cannot decide in place of our national courts.” You worked at the ECHR for years, did you? How binding are the decisions of the ECtHR for us?

It is said that “our national courts cannot decide in their place”, but the ECHR does not do such a thing. The Turkish court, of course, will decide on the release of Selahattin Demirtaş. The Tribunal does the following: There is a contract to which Turkey is a party. He looks to see if this contract has been violated and says “It has been violated.” Then Turkey’s obligation to take steps to eliminate these violations. The ECHR also establishes in its decision how to do this …

ABOUT THE CONSTITUTION

– Release of Selahattin Demirtaş …

Yes. He says this is the thing to do. Turkey has the obligation as part of this agreement. Has committed. Not content with that, he added a paragraph to article 90 of his constitution. Here, too, he said, “it is incompatible with the decision of the Court is legal in Turkey, priority is given to the decision of the ECHR …” So the Court is part of Turkish law. It is not a foreign court … Article 46 of the Convention is very clear: “The parties are obliged to comply with the decisions of the ECHR in accordance with this contract and to carry out these decisions.” Now there is something else.

– Yesterday, the Minister of Internal Affairs Soylu said “The decision of the ECHR does not make sense” …

That said, it doesn’t make sense for Turkey to sign the interest contract, like a gate. This is a speech that does not value your signature and undermines the signature itself.

– Do you have the right to say “We will not comply with the judgment of the ECHR”?

No, there is … Because the provision of the contract is very clear.

– What about the lesson?

There is no police force at the disposal of the ECHR to enforce the decisions. Instead, there is the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. The ECHR finds the violation in its decisions and leaves it there. How the decision is implemented belongs to the Committee of Ministers. In some very important decisions, the ECHR also says what to do in the implementation of the decision, and in this decision, it said ‘it should be released’. It is important to say this because the Committee of Ministers is a political body. Cut the political discussions there.

– What does he do?

Accept the decision and forward it to the ECHR with a two-thirds majority, if necessary. The Committee of Ministers meets four times a year. This keeps the file open four times, each time asking the ambassador ‘What did you do? Turkey must provide a plan showing how it will implement this decision. The only thing you can do is be released immediately.

– How do you read the government statements?

I read that there is a problem with the rule of law. If you filed the law, you won’t enforce the court orders.

MEMORY OF THE REFORM

– The president said: “See you in Europe, not elsewhere, we are thinking of building our future together with Europe.” How important is the application of the ECtHR judgments in relations with Europe?

Europe is a set of values. There is also the rule of law within this set of values. The ECHR is a very important body in Europe. It is also highly respected by the European Union. The Court decided that the request refers to a legal reform in Turkey. It is not convincing at all.

– Erdogan’s words are important: “The verdict on Demirtas clearly contradicts the justifications for the ruling of the same court, for example the Batasuna Party in Spain. In its ruling in the Batasuna case, the court ruled that not openly condemning acts of violence could be considered a crime. It is hypocritical that a court that accepts the omission of condemning the acts of violence of the terrorist organization in support of terrorism requested the release of the director general of an action that resulted in the brutal murder of 39 citizens from October 6 to 8, 2014 ” .

Batasuna and this case should not be confused. Batasuna is a closing party event. Here is the arrest of a politician. Completely different themes. In the Batasuna case, the closure of the party is decided based on a series of facts. Because a series of facts show that Batasuna is a violent party that promotes violence and is incompatible with democracy. Here we are talking about the leader of the second largest opposition party in Turkey. That is why it is said that he needs more protection in Parliament.

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