Turkey’s ongoing restrictions on fundamental rights and freedoms are incompatible with European human rights standards, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights warned in a statement on Tuesday.
Following a visit to Turkey from December 1 to 5, Michael O’Flaherty urged the government to end practices that violate the international human rights standards and to restore key safeguards, especially for freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and association.
The commissioner noted frequent bans on peaceful demonstrations and the excessive use of force by police, often justified on tenuous grounds such as “public order” or “general morality,” saying these measures contradict European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) standards.
O’Flaherty also recalled the mass detentions during nationwide protests in March following the arrest of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. He stressed that any restriction on peaceful assembly must be lawful, necessary, proportionate and non-discriminatory.
İmamoğlu, a senior member of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and considered to be the strongest political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was detained on March 19 along with dozens of İstanbul city officials. He was named his party’s presidential candidate in March for the next general election scheduled for 2028.
His detention sparked widespread protests —the largest in Turkey since 2013. During the demonstrations nearly 2,000 people, including teenagers, students, lawyers, journalists, union leaders and human rights defenders, were detained nationwide. İmamoğlu was arrested days later, on March 23, on corruption charges.
O’Flaherty said Turkey’s vague counterterrorism legislation continues to be misused against human rights defenders and opposition politicians to restrict freedom of expression. He called on the government to pursue judicial reforms and to implement the long-pending ECtHR judgements that require Turkey to take broader measures to prevent similar violations. He also expressed concern about widespread access bans on online platforms and content.
The commissioner also noted that financial and administrative pressure on civil society organizations, along with judicial pressure on bar associations, is undermining their ability to perform their crucial role in safeguarding human rights and the rule of law.
On ECtHR rulings, O’Flaherty said Turkey’s implementation record remains poor, especially in cases concerning structural problems. He highlighted the lack of progress in the cases of Selahattin Demirtaş, the imprisoned former leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), and Osman Kavala, a prominent philanthropist and rights advocate.
Demirtaş was arrested on November 4, 2016, on charges including “dissemination of terrorist propaganda” and alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). In May 2024 Demirtaş was sentenced to 42 years in prison for allegedly undermining state unity during the Kobani protests, which erupted across Turkey, on October 6-8, 2014, when the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) laid siege to the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani. Particularly intense in the predominantly Kurdish southeastern provinces, the protests resulted in 37 deaths.
Kavala was arrested in October 2017 and sentenced to life in 2022 for allegedly trying to topple the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. His conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeals in September 2023.
O’Flaherty also criticized the refusal of lower courts to implement Constitutional Court’s rulings, saying this practice “undermines the rule of law and the principle of legal certainty.”
Addressing women’s rights, the commissioner urged the government to reconsider its withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, an international accord that requires governments to adopt legislation prosecuting perpetrators of domestic violence and similar abuse as well as marital rape and female genital mutilation.
Despite opposition from the international community and women’s rights groups, Turkish President Erdoğan issued a decree in March 2021 that pulled the country out of the international treaty. Erdoğan claimed the treaty had been “hijacked by a group of people attempting to normalize homosexuality,” which he said was “incompatible” with Turkey’s “social and family values.”
During his visit the commissioner met with Family Minister Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Mehmet Kemal Bozay, Deputy Justice Minister Niyazi Acar, Deputy Interior Minister Münir Karaloğlu, President of Constitutional Court Kadir Özkaya and several lawmakers. He also visited Turkey’s National Human Rights and Equality Institution (TİHEK), the Union of Turkish Bar Associations and the Istanbul Bar Association.
