Thirty bar associations across Turkey on Wednesday urged the authorities to release prominent Kurdish opposition leader Selahattin Demirtaş, following a binding European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruling that found his detention politically motivated, the T24 news website reported.
The statement came after the ECtHR refused to refer its judgment to the Grand Chamber, finalizing the decision. The court had ruled that Demirtaş’s pretrial detention violated the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and was intended to suppress democratic debate.
“We respectfully call on authorities to urgently implement the decisions of the Constitutional Court and the ECtHR, to take the necessary steps for those whose rights have been violated, and to act in accordance with the principle of the rule of law,” the associations said in a joint statement.
Turkey filed its appeal on October 8, challenging the Strasbourg court’s July 8 judgment that found Ankara in violation of the ECHR. Building on its 2020 ruling, the court held that Demirtaş’s pretrial detention for more than four years at the time “pursued an ulterior purpose, namely that of stifling public debate and limiting the scope of democratic debate.”
“Despite this clear constitutional framework, failure to implement ECtHR decisions amounts not only to individual rights violations, but also to breaches of the constitution and international obligations,” the statement read. “Under Article 46 of the European Convention on Human Rights, all member states are required to execute final judgments of the court.”
Demirtaş, a prominent Kurdish politician, former leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and vocal critic of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was initially arrested on November 4, 2016, on charges including “dissemination of terrorist propaganda” and alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
In May 2024 Demirtaş was sentenced to 42 years in prison for allegedly undermining state unity during the Kobani protests — demonstrations that erupted across Turkey from October 6 to 8, 2014, when the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) laid siege to the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani. Particularly intense in the predominantly Kurdish southeastern provinces, the protests resulted in 37 deaths.
The ECtHR has now ruled three times — in 2018, 2020 and 2025 — that Demirtaş’s detention violated his rights, concluding that Turkish authorities aimed to silence political opposition. The latest ruling ordered Ankara to pay over €55,000 in damages and legal fees.
Legal experts and political observers say Ankara’s refusal to release Demirtaş despite repeated court rulings has raised doubts about its commitment to the rule of law and democratic reform. Although a parliamentary commission on peace efforts with the Kurds has begun meetings, critics note that President Erdoğan has taken no concrete steps since the PKK formally renounced its armed campaign in May after four decades of conflict that claimed more than 40,000 lives. Signatories included bar associations from major provinces such as Istanbul, Diyarbakır, Antalya and Bursa, along with 26 others
