The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has communicated to the Turkish government questions regarding applications alleging rights violations in the conviction of former Air Force Academy cadets and a military officer over their alleged involvement in a coup attempt in 2016.
The court asked whether Turkish courts had provided individualized reasons for the convictions and adequately addressed key defense arguments, including a practical inability to surrender to the police, the non-firing of the applicants’ weapons and a lack of awareness of the coup attempt. The questions were communicated to the Turkish government on May 26, with the documents made public on Monday.
The court also requested explanations regarding restrictions on confidential communications between the applicants and their lawyers imposed under a legislative decree. It also asked whether the refusal to summon defense witnesses was compatible with fair trial guarantees.
The ECtHR also asked Turkey to define the elements required to establish the offense of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order and to explain whether those elements had been demonstrated in the applicants’ convictions.
The applications mainly allege violations of the right to a fair trial under Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and the principle of no punishment without law under Article 7.
The applicants were sentenced to aggravated life for attempting to overthrow the constitutional order due to their alleged roles in events at the Orhanlı toll booths in İstanbul’s Tuzla district on the night of the coup attempt. The cadets were transported from a training camp in Yalova toward İstanbul on orders from their commanders. The convoy stopped at the Orhanlı toll plaza after police blocked the highway. Clashes later broke out, leaving six dead and dozens injured.
They argued that Turkish courts failed to provide sufficient legal reasoning and to address their specific arguments, restricted their access to lawyers and refused to hear defense witnesses.
Three applicants also alleged that Article 309 of the Turkish Penal Code, which criminalizes attempts to overthrow the constitutional order, was applied in a manner contrary to the ECHR.
Among the applicants are former military cadets Nimet Ecem Gönüllü, Nagihan Yavuz and Şüheda Sena Öğütalan, who have spent nine years in prison following their arrest after the coup attempt.
The three female cadets were from Turkey’s Air Force Academy and were arrested following the failed coup in July 2016. They were sentenced to life in prison on coup-related charges in May 2018. Their sentences were upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeals in July 2022.
The cadets have denied taking part in the attempted coup, saying they were only acting on orders from their superiors, who told them there was a terrorist attack on the night of the attempted coup.
Turkey experienced a controversial military coup attempt on the night of July 15, 2016. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan immediately accused the Gülen movement, inspired by the late US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, of orchestrating the plot and significantly expanded a crackdown on the movement’s supporters that was already underway. The movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
The abortive putsch left 251 people dead and more than a thousand injured. The next morning the Turkish government immediately started a wide-ranging purge of military officers, judges, police officers and other government officials. According to official figures, 150 of the Turkish Armed Forces’ 326 generals and admirals and more than 24,000 officers as well as 4,156 judges and prosecutors were summarily removed from their jobs by emergency decree-laws for alleged ties to “terrorist organizations.”
