Turkey continues to account for the largest number of pending applications before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), with 21,200 complaints still awaiting resolution — 35.2 percent of all complaints filed with the court, according to the latest statistics published on May 31.
Turkey is followed by Russia with 7,900 applications and Ukraine with 7,500.
Turkey has experienced a sharp uptick in applications over the years, mainly driven by the arrest and pretrial detention of the applicants in the aftermath of a coup attempt on July 15, 2016, on suspicion of membership in an alleged terrorist organization, referring to the faith-based Gülen movement.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, which 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 began to target the movement’s members. He designated the movement as a terrorist organization in May 2016 and intensified the crackdown on it following an abortive putsch in July of the same year that he accused Gülen of masterminding. The movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
The ECtHR has found Turkey to have violated the rights of a total of 3,182 people in 64 different applications related to post-coup rights violations. Turkey has been ordered to pay a total of 12,563,538 euros in non-pecuniary damages and expenses in these cases.
Despite the ECtHR decisions, the Turkish government is continuing its crackdown on real and alleged followers of the Gülen movement.
International observers have argued that the Turkish judicial system has suffered “irreversible damage” during the tenure of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), eroding public confidence in the rule of law. According to the World Rule of Law Index, Turkey ranks 117th among 142 countries, putting it on par with nations such as Angola, Niger and Guatemala.
Between 2002 and 2024, the ECtHR issued 3,363 violation rulings against Turkey.
Public distrust in the judiciary deepened further following the March 19 detention and subsequent arrest of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. Analysts say the ECtHR statistics underscore the fragile state of Turkey’s legal system.
