Will Turkey exit Convention on Human Rights?
Last week the European Court of Human Rights again ruled against Turkey and demanded the immediate release of Turkish businessman and cultural patron Osman Kavala, who has been held detention since 2017. Ankara has failed to comply with all previous rulings on the issue. Sources close to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan suggest that the country is considering withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights.
Constitutional states can't cherry-pick the rules
If no one can be sure that a ruling will actually be enforced, the rule of law is just a facade, warns Birgün:
“If a state fails to implement the binding rules of an agreement to which it has itself acceded, on what grounds can it still claim to be governed by the rule of law? When a political authority is faced with rulings it does not like, will it change the court or comply with the law? Is withdrawing from a treaty because we disapprove of an international court's ruling compatible with any principle of the rule of law? ... The measure of the rule of law is not how much those in power like the rulings handed down in their favour, but whether they abide by rulings that go against them.”
Ankara severing last ties with Europe
The break with Strasbourg is not a knee-jerk reaction to a single ruling but follows a plan, Cumhuriyet argues:
“The AKP government's reactions to the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that businessman Osman Kavala's imprisonment for almost ten years was unlawful and its decision to order his release have once again made Turkey's relations with Europe a bone of contention. ... The government's severing of political and cultural ties with Europe is a systematic strategy aimed at distancing Turkey from Europe and aligning it with the Middle East. This is because it is impossible for the AKP to remain in power within a system where values such as democracy, freedom of expression and the press, free elections, human rights, an independent judiciary, the rule of law and secularism prevail.”