The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ordered Turkey to pay damages to 468 individuals, ruling their detention in the aftermath of a failed coup attempt in July 2016 was “unlawful” due to a lack of “reasonable suspicion.”
The November 12, 2024 ruling from the ECtHR granted a total of 2.34 million euros in total compensation. This latest judgment brings the total compensation Turkey has been ordered to pay in related ECtHR cases to 10.76 million euros.
The individual cases were deliberated in the context of Keskin v. Türkiye, Manav v. Türkiye and Tanyaş v. Türkiye. All three cases involved individuals who were detained on suspicions of being affiliated with the Gülen movement.
The Gülen movement, inspired by the late Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, is accused by the Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of masterminding a failed coup on July 15, 2016 and is labeled a “terrorist organization,” although the movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has targeted followers of the Gülen movement since corruption investigations revealed in December 2013 implicated then-Prime Minister Erdoğan, his family members and his inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and a conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement a terrorist organization and began to crack down on the group. His efforts intensified following the abortive putsch in 2016.
After the coup attempt, among other questionable practices, the Turkish government claimed that the ByLock application was used as a secret communication tool exclusively among supporters of the Gülen movement, despite the lack of any evidence.
In all three of the ECtHR cases, the majority of suspects were detained for allegedly using the ByLock messaging application. According to the Turkish authorities, the use of the encrypted ByLock messaging app, which was available on Apple’s App Store and Google Play. were signs of links to the movement. Thousands were detained and later arrested for using the application.
Other indicators, such as holding accounts at the now-defunct Gülen-affiliated Bank Asya or possessing one-dollar bills with specific serial codes were also used as grounds to detain various individuals.
The ECHR’s rulings demonstrate violations of Article 5 § 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights, concerning the right to liberty and security, due to the lack of specific and individualized evidence in the detention orders. These cases are part of a broader pattern of judgments by the ECtHR, which has now found Turkey in violation in 60 cases affecting a total of 2,353 individuals detained since 2016.
While the ECtHR acknowledged the exceptional circumstances following the coup attempt, it stated that the state of emergency did not justify compromising the standards of “reasonable suspicion” required under European human rights law.
Following the coup attempt, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and carried out a massive purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti-coup fight. More than 130,000 public servants were summarily removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by virtue of emergency decree laws, subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny. Others were also summarily targeted.
Scores of Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.
Turkey was ranked 117th among 142 countries in the rule of law index published by the World Justice Project (WJP) in October, dropping one place in comparison with 2022.
