The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe announced Monday that it will send a high-level delegation to Turkey later this week to visit Enes Hocaoğulları, a 23-year-old LGBTQ+ activist and Turkey’s youth delegate to the body, who was arrested earlier this month over a speech criticizing police violence and the removal of opposition mayors.
The fact-finding mission, scheduled for September 4–5, will be led by Congress President Marc Cools and include Véronique Bertholle of France, the Congress spokesperson on youth, and Peter Drenth of the Netherlands, deputy standing rapporteur on human rights. They will be accompanied by Congress Secretary General Mathieu Mori.
The delegation is expected to meet with Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç, Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor Gökhan Karaköse, the Ankara Bar Association, youth and human rights organizations and Turkey’s delegation to the congress. The group also plans to visit Hocaoğulları in prison in Ankara.
Hocaoğulları, who was taken into police custody at Ankara’s Esenboğa Airport on August 4 and later arrested by a court, faces charges of “spreading misleading information” and “inciting hatred and enmity.” The accusations stem from a speech he delivered on March 27 in Strasbourg, where he denounced police brutality, shrinking space for dissent and the arrest of opposition mayors, including İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.
Cools has previously condemned Hocaoğulları’s arrest as “scandalous and unacceptable,” calling the charges political retaliation for legitimate participation in the congress.
The delegation will present its findings at a press conference on September 5 at 12:30 p.m. at the Ankara Hilton Hotel, with English and Turkish interpretation available.
