6 October 2022
The struggle for human rights and democracy perseveres despite the increasing repression of human rights defenders under the permanent state of emergency regime.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which was announced by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 10 March 2020 and continued throughout 2021, has been used more as a tool to further restrict rights and freedoms. During this period, there have been serious losses of rights, especially civil and political rights, as well as economic, social and cultural rights. The authoritarian regime in Turkey led to further losses.
The state of emergency (SoE), which was declared on 20 July 2016 on the grounds of armed conflict that broke out on 24 July 2015 and the following failed coup d’état of 15 July 2016 and lifted on 19 July 2018, was rendered permanent through Law No. 7145. Today Turkey is going through an authoritarian era characterized by such SoE regime. The regime in the country was changed through the referendum of 16 April 2017, which was held under the SoE conditions introducing vital constitutional amendments, while this regime was referred to as the “Turkish-type Presidency Model” or the “Presidency Cabinet.” This regime is typically characterized by its authoritarian government perspective. Such government in Turkey attempted to rule the country with its authoritarian practices under the name of various administrative measures and unconstitutional bans when it faced the pandemic. In other words, pandemic management was mostly realized through ban decisions taken by the Ministry of Interior and governors’ offices in stark infringement of the “principle of legality” in 2021 as well.
The failure to resolve the Kurdish issue and the ongoing armed conflict have unfortunately been seen in 2021 too. Turkey’s military campaign has been extended so as to cover northern Iraq as of June 2020, while the military tried to control certain regions in northern Iraq following Syria and the conflict zone expanded. The policy of appointing state trustees and disregarding the people’s will in local governments also continued in 2021.
In 2021, Turkey remained under political monitoring initiated by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on 25 April 2017. The European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR) stand towards the substantiality of democracy and human rights problems in Turkey has also proven to be a noteworthy case in point. The court’s violation judgments limited to the cases of Selahattin Demirtaş and Osman Kavala have not even been implemented as was due. The fact that the ECtHR, which has been moving away from the principle of rule of law, that it has been constantly pointing to the Constitutional Court in order to avoid adjudicating on applications from Turkey has laid bare the corrosion in the protection of human rights values. Although the ECtHR once again found a violation against Turkey under the violation procedure in the Kavala case, the Committee of Ministers of the CoE slowed down the process, showing yet another concession to the protection of human rights. Moreover, it has been observed that the Constitutional Court failed to rule in favor of human rights and engaged in a negative attitude especially when “the national security policies of the state” were at stake. The court’s negative conduct, specifically towards the SoE decree laws and laws, revealed the fact that it has not been an effective domestic remedy to protect human rights. Yet, some partial annulment judgments by the Constitutional Court in 2019 about SoE decree laws and the maintenance of this conduct in 2021can be regarded as hopeful.
2021 witnessed a novel type autocratic regime of liberalism creating profound uncertainties within the permanent SoE with immense restriction and prohibition of the most fundamental rights including freedom of expression, association, assembly and protest. The judiciary itself was used as the most prominent instrument of repression and trust in justice hit rock bottom.
Click to read to full report in English: SR2022_2021 Turkey Violations Report