On March 18, 2014, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the sentencing of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan to aggravated life imprisonment without the right to conditional release (the right to hope) violated the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and asked Turkey to make arrangements. Turkey has not taken any steps in response to the “violation” ruling, despite the 10 years that have passed. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoE) will hold a meeting between September 17-19 to monitor the implementation of the ECtHR's violation rulings and requirements.  

 

Ahead of the meeting, the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), the Human Rights Association (İHD), the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV), the Association of Contemporary Lawyers (ÇHD), the Association of Civil Society in the Penal Execution System (CİSST) and the Society and Law Research Foundation (TOHAV) notified the Committee of Ministers and called on Turkey to “make the necessary legislative changes”. 

 

İbrahim Bilmez, one of the lawyers of Asrın Law Office, made evaluations on the importance of the meeting of the Committee of Ministers and the steps Turkey should take in this regard. 

 

'A STEP TOO LATE'

 

Interpreting the Committee of Ministers' decision to put the ECtHR's “violation” verdict on Abdullah Öcalan back on its agenda after 3 years as a positive but “late step”, Bilmez said: “Because there is a decision that Turkey has persistently and stubbornly not implemented for years and the authority responsible for the implementation of this decision is the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. Not only Turkey, but all member states of the CoE sign the convention, recognize the organs and powers of the CoE and undertake to abide by its decisions. Turkey has also signed the convention and recognized the competence of the ECtHR. In this respect, it has to fulfill the requirements of the ECtHR's violation judgments. In the 2014 Öcalan-2 judgment in which the ECtHR condemned Turkey, it stated that 'aggravated imprisonment cannot be imposed on a person, you cannot keep a person between four walls without any hope until death within the scope of the right to hope. If you impose such a sentence, it means torture. Therefore, according to the ECHR ruling, our client Mr. Öcalan and other people sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment have been under torture day by day and hour by hour since 2014. But the Committee of Ministers has not been able to fulfill the requirements of this judgment since then.” 

 

TURKEY HAS NOT TAKEN ANY STEPS FOR 10 YEARS

 

Bilmez said that as lawyers, they have made 6 applications to the Committee of Ministers within the scope of the “right to hope” since 2014, and that an application was also made to the Committee of Ministers by civil society organizations in July. Regarding the application, Bilmez stated the following: “According to paragraph 2 of Article 9 of the Convention, non-governmental organizations can also apply to the Committee of Ministers and complain about the non-fulfillment of the ECtHR judgments. As in 2021, non-governmental organizations applied again this July and the committee will put this issue on its agenda in this session. It will discuss why Turkey has not implemented this decision and what needs to be done to implement it. It’s will ask Turkey written questions such as 'why didn't you make arrangements or if you did, what arrangements did you make'. Turkey is doing nothing, stalling the process and dragging it out over time. For 10 years Turkey has 'successfully' brought the issue to this point without taking any steps. In its previous action plan, Turkey said 'I will take care of this issue'. Then, in its reply to the Committee of Ministers, it said 'we no longer have such a problem, aggravated life imprisonment is exceptional'. However, the ECtHR warned Turkey, 'There are no exceptions to this. You cannot give this punishment to anyone no matter what crime they commit'. The Committee of Ministers also needs to see this.”  

 

  

'AGGRAVATED LIFE IMPRISONMENT WAS INVENTED WITH ÖCALAN'

 

Bilmez stated that aggravated life imprisonment, which is included in the Turkish legislation, was first put into practice with Abdullah Öcalan, but it was applied to thousands of prisoners afterwards, and underlined that it is not even known how many aggravated life prisoners are in prison at this stage. “Although the Committee of Ministers asked Turkey about this, Turkey does not provide this information. It is estimated that there are thousands of people serving this sentence. These policies encourage Turkey. Turkey has not fulfilled the ECtHR's ruling for 10 years, but it does not face any sanctions, in other words, Turkey is being tolerated. Turkey continues to implement this as a policy and does not do what is necessary. But of course this also reduces Turkey's credibility and damages its image. As a matter of fact, this issue was not limited to Mr. Öcalan. Encouraged by these policies, Turkey has started to not implement other judgments. There are the decisions of the ECHR on Osman Kavala and Selahattin Demirtaş” he said. 

 

'LEGAL ARRANGEMENTS MUST BE MADE'

 

For this reason, Bilmez underlined that Turkey should fulfill the requirements of the ECtHR's violation judgment and amend the legislation without wasting time, and said that the first step at this point could be a legal regulation to be made in the parliament. Bilmez said: “For example, the execution of people sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment 25 years after their sentences is evaluated by an independent observation board consisting of legal experts. So it is not like the current observation boards. Because the current observation committees are made up of people whose impartiality we can doubt, such as the prison director and the prison psychologist. This is a matter that concerns not only Mr. Öcalan but thousands of people. If Turkey makes such an arrangement, these people in prison will live with the hope that one day they will be able to get out. In this way, this form of imprisonment will cease to be torture and the political tension here will end as Turkey will have fulfilled the ECHR ruling. Because Turkey will now be a state that respects the rule of law and fulfills the decision of the court.” 

 

'THERE WILL BE A BILL IF STEPS ARE NOT TAKEN'

 

Stating that if Turkey maintains its current stance, the bill for Turkey and its people will be heavy, Bilmez said: “Turkey has turned its face to the West since the Ottoman Empire. It has accepted European law, the ECHR, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, in other words, human rights mechanisms. Therefore, it must fulfill the requirements of these. If it fails to do so, this will lead to Turkey's exclusion from the system. In other words, Turkey sees itself as part of Europe but does not fulfill the requirements of European law. How long can it keep this up? Even if it does, it will lead to its detachment from the system after a while. This will also have an economic cost and Turkey will become a third world country. It would fall down in the human rights rankings and all of this would have repercussions for the people of Turkey. Russia is one of the countries that does not implement the ECtHR judgments and like Turkey, it is taking its time. After the Ukraine issue, its relations with the Council of Europe were severed. Russia has retreated into its own shell, which also affects Russia's own economy. Turkey may also go through such a process. If Turkey goes through the same process as Russia, it may be affected in a much more negative way.” 

 

INITIATIVES WILL CONTINUE

 

Bilmez stated that as lawyers, they will continue to take initiatives before different institutions regarding the İmralı isolation in addition to the application to the CoE Committee of Ministers and continued as follows: “In Strasbourg, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe meets four times a year. There will be a session at the end of September. During this period, we will go to Strasbourg and hold meetings with parliamentarians there, CPT officials and other international organizations and try to put this unlawfulness on their agenda. In other words, we will continue to use all kinds of mechanisms until we get a positive result. We will watch this meeting of the Committee of Ministers and follow the decisions it will take, what it will ask Turkey to do, and accordingly, if necessary, as lawyers, we can apply through the 9.1 procedure (lawyer application). There are also rumors that they will use the 9.2 procedure (civil society organization application). In other words, this issue is not only a matter of Mr. Öcalan or the Kurds, it concerns the Turkey society as a whole.” 

 

MA / İbrahim Irmak