The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution on Wednesday urging Turkey to fulfill its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights by implementing key judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), Turkish Minute reported.
Meeting in plenary session under urgent procedure, PACE adopted Resolution 2599, calling on Turkey to implement longstanding ECtHR rulings, with a specific demand for the immediate release of Osman Kavala.
Kavala, who has been imprisoned since November 2017 on charges related to 2013 anti-government protests, was sentenced to life in prison in 2022 for allegedly attempting to overthrow the government of then-prime minister and current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. His conviction, seen by some as politically motivated, was upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeals in September 2023.
Turkey has refused to release Kavala despite a 2019 European Court of Human Rights ruling that found his detention was in pursuance of an “ulterior motive,” that of silencing him as a human rights defender.
The non-implementation of the rulings prompted the Council of Europe’s (CoE) Committee of Ministers to launch an infringement procedure against Turkey in February 2022 that is still ongoing.
The resolution describes Turkey’s failure to implement the Kavala v. Turkey judgment, despite infringement proceedings under Article 46, as “absolutely unacceptable” and endorses the use of the “complementary joint procedure” foreseen in Resolution 2319 (2020) for serious violations by member states.
While the resolution does not name other cases, it follows a detailed report by Cypriot lawmaker Constantinos Efstathiou, who has served as rapporteur for three successive implementation reports.
In an interview with journalist Ensar Nur ahead of the vote, Efstathiou expressed regret that the overall compliance landscape in Europe remains largely unchanged. “States that do not comply continue to do so,” he said, “and it’s getting worse.”
The report debated before the vote explicitly refers to the ECtHR’s judgment in Demirtaş v. Turkey where the court found the detention of former pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş to be politically motivated and in violation of multiple convention rights, including freedom of expression and protection against abuse of power under Article 18. It also points to the prosecution of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu as part of an ongoing misuse of judicial processes to silence opposition figures in Turkey.
During the interview Efstathiou criticized what he called the CoE’s approach to Turkey, continuing diplomatic dialogue without results. He warned that this inaction risks a “domino effect,” with one rights violation leading to another.
Efstathiou lamented that there are no intermediary measures that would ensure compliance with the ECtHR rulings, pointing out that the CoE either expels a state for repeated violations, or does nothing other than urge compliance. He said he and his colleagues are working on procedures that fall short of the expulsion of a member state but do more than just words.
When asked about the absence of the Yalçınkaya v. Turkey ruling from the report — a landmark 2023 ECtHR Grand Chamber judgment challenging Turkey’s mass terrorism prosecutions — Efstathiou acknowledged its significance but noted it was considered too recent to be listed as a non-implemented case.
In September 2023, the ECtHR delivered a landmark judgment faulting Turkey over the conviction of former teacher Yüksel Yalçınkaya due to his alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, which was demonstrated through his labor union membership, banking transactions and use of the ByLock messaging application. The report noted that the court found there had been an arbitrary application of the law that violated the principle of legality. The judgment also found violations of fair trial and freedom of association rights and ruled that Turkey needed to implement general measures to address the violations.
Nonetheless, a Turkish court convicted him once again in September 2024 on the same charges.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has targeted followers of the Gülen movement — inspired by the late cleric Fethullah Gülen, who died in exile in October — since corruption probes in 2013 implicated Erdoğan and his inner circle. After accusing the movement of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt, which it denies, Erdoğan oversaw a sweeping purge of over 130,000 public employees, including thousands of judges, prosecutors and military personnel, through emergency decrees without judicial oversight.
Efstathiou added that the Committee of Ministers will review Yalçınkaya judgement’s implementation in June.
Turkey currently leads all CoE member states with 137 unresolved “leading cases,” many pending for over five years. The report faults Turkish authorities for focusing on procedural closures via compensation in repetitive cases without addressing root causes or undertaking structural reforms.
Resolution 2599 reflects broader concerns raised in the 2023 Reykjavik Declaration, in which CoE leaders committed to resisting democratic backsliding by prioritizing ECtHR implementation, especially in cases concerning freedom of expression, fair trials, judicial independence and Article 18 violations.
The resolution also calls for stronger national coordination mechanisms, parliamentary oversight and the creation of a Network of Parliamentarians to promote domestic implementation of ECtHR rulings. Efstathiou stressed that the system’s credibility depends on execution, saying, “The convention means nothing if the judgments are not implemented.”
