The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers has called on Turkey to immediately release jailed Kurdish politicians Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ Şenoğlu, repeating a demand based on binding European court rulings.
The committee adopted the decision during a human rights meeting in Strasbourg on September 15 and 16.
It urged Turkey’s government and courts to use every available means to free the two former opposition leaders.
The committee said those means could include the Law on Strengthening National Solidarity and Social Integration, which Turkey’s parliament passed on August 10 as part of a peace process with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
It asked Ankara to explain whether all applicants covered by the Demirtaş group of cases could benefit from the law and when it would be applied.
Demirtaş and Yüksekdağ formerly led the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and have been in prison since November 2016.
An Ankara court sentenced Demirtaş to 42 years and Yüksekdağ to 30 years in May 2024 over protests in Turkey during the Islamic State’s siege of the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani in 2014.
Their appeals and requests for release are still pending before a regional appeals court.
Demirtaş and Yüksekdağ also have complaints before Turkey’s Constitutional Court that have been pending since 2019 and 2023, respectively.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled in separate cases that their detention lacked reasonable grounds and pursued the political goal of stifling pluralism and limiting debate.
The court ordered Turkey to take all steps needed to secure their immediate release.
ECtHR rulings are binding under Article 46 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and the Committee of Ministers oversees their execution.
The committee also urged Turkey to protect political speech by opposition politicians and provide data on requests to lift lawmakers’ immunity.
It will review the release issue again in December and Turkey’s broader measures in March 2027.
This article is republished from Turkish Minute.
