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MPs from CoE member states seek sanctions over Turkey’s failure to implement court rulings
22.04.2026
By Turkish Minute
Source:https://www.turkishminute.com/2026/04/24/mps-from-coe-member-states-seek-sanctions-over-turkeys-failure-to-implement-court-rulings/
A group of 28 lawmakers of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), drawn from national parliaments across Europe, has submitted a motion calling for targeted sanctions against Turkish judges and prosecutors over Ankara’s failure to implement binding rulings from Europe’s top human rights court, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported.
The motion, dated April 22, urges Council of Europe member and observer states as well as the European Union to impose targeted measures under so-called Magnitsky sanctions — legal tools that allow governments to penalize individuals accused of human rights abuses — against specific individuals deemed responsible for the continued detention of Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala, including judges, prosecutors and other officials involved in his case, with proposed penalties such as travel bans, asset freezes and restrictions on access to international financial systems.
The motion said Turkey has failed to comply with rulings by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which found that Kavala’s detention violated Article 18 of the European Convention on Human Rights, indicating that the judicial process was used for an ulterior purpose, namely to silence him, similar to findings in the case of Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş.
Imprisoned since 2017, Kavala, a prominent philanthropist known for supporting civil society initiatives, was convicted in 2022 of attempting to overthrow the government in connection with the 2013 Gezi Park protests and sentenced to life in prison. He denies the charges.
Despite judgments issued in 2019 and 2022 and an infringement procedure launched by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Kavala remains in prison.
The motion also cites the Yalçınkaya v. Turkey ruling as evidence of broader systemic problems in Turkey’s judiciary. In that case, the ECtHR found a violation of Article 7 of the convention, which guarantees that no one can be convicted without a clear legal basis, after a former teacher was convicted of terrorism-related offenses based largely on his use of a messaging application and alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement.
The ECtHR said the legal reasoning used by Turkish courts was overly broad and unpredictable and warned that the same approach had been applied in thousands of similar cases.
According to the motion, more than 8,000 related applications are pending before the Strasbourg court and over 100,000 cases are before Turkish courts. It adds that Turkish authorities have continued to issue similar rulings despite the judgment.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has targeted followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated him as well as some members of his family and inner circle. He dismissed the probes as a Gülenist conspiracy and later designated the movement asa terrorist organization in May 2016, intensifying a sweeping crackdown after a coup attempt in July of the same year that he accused Gülen of orchestrating. The movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
Since the coup attempt in 2016, the Turkish government has accepted such activities as having an account at the now-shuttered Bank Asya, one of Turkey’s largest commercial banks at the time; using the ByLock messaging application, an encrypted messaging app that was available on Apple’s App Store and Google Play; and subscribing to the now-shut-down Zaman daily or other publications affiliated with members of the movement as benchmarks for identifying and arresting alleged followers of the Gülen movement on charges of membership in a terrorist organization.
According to the latest figures from the justice ministry, more than 126,000 people have been convicted for alleged links to the movement since 2016, with 11,085 still in prison. Legal proceedings are ongoing for over 24,000 individuals, while another 58,000 remain under active investigation nearly a decade later.
In addition to the thousands who were jailed, scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.
The motion has not yet been debated and reflects the position of its signatories.
The motion was signed by 28 lawmakers from across Council of Europe (CoE) member states. They include Constantinos Efstathiou of Cyprus from the Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group; Adam Bodnar of Poland from the European People’s Party Group (EPP); Christophe Brico of Monaco from the same group; and Ricardo Carvalho of Portugal, also from the EPP.
22.04.2026
By Turkish Minute
Source:https://www.turkishminute.com/2026/04/24/mps-
A group of 28 lawmakers of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), drawn from national parliaments across Europe, has submitted a motion calling for targeted sanctions against Turkish judges and prosecutors over Ankara’s failure to implement binding rulings from Europe’s top human rights court, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported.
The motion, dated April 22, urges Council of Europe member and observer states as well as the European Union to impose targeted measures under so-
The motion said Turkey has failed to comply with rulings by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which found that Kavala’s detention violated Article 18 of the European Convention on Human Rights, indicating that the judicial process was used for an ulterior purpose, namely to silence him, similar to findings in the case of Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş.
Imprisoned since 2017, Kavala, a prominent philanthropist known for supporting civil society initiatives, was convicted in 2022 of attempting to overthrow the government in connection with the 2013 Gezi Park protests and sentenced to life in prison. He denies the charges.
Despite judgments issued in 2019 and 2022 and an infringement procedure launched by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Kavala remains in prison.
The motion also cites the Yalçınkaya v. Turkey ruling as evidence of broader systemic problems in Turkey’s judiciary. In that case, the ECtHR found a violation of Article 7 of the convention, which guarantees that no one can be convicted without a clear legal basis, after a former teacher was convicted of terrorism-
The ECtHR said the legal reasoning used by Turkish courts was overly broad and unpredictable and warned that the same approach had been applied in thousands of similar cases.
According to the motion, more than 8,000 related applications are pending before the Strasbourg court and over 100,000 cases are before Turkish courts. It adds that Turkish authorities have continued to issue similar rulings despite the judgment.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has targeted followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated him as well as some members of his family and inner circle. He dismissed the probes as a Gülenist conspiracy and later designated the movement asa terrorist organization in May 2016, intensifying a sweeping crackdown after a coup attempt in July of the same year that he accused Gülen of orchestrating. The movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
Since the coup attempt in 2016, the Turkish government has accepted such activities as having an account at the now-
According to the latest figures from the justice ministry, more than 126,000 people have been convicted for alleged links to the movement since 2016, with 11,085 still in prison. Legal proceedings are ongoing for over 24,000 individuals, while another 58,000 remain under active investigation nearly a decade later.
In addition to the thousands who were jailed, scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.
The motion has not yet been debated and reflects the position of its signatories.
The motion was signed by 28 lawmakers from across Council of Europe (CoE) member states. They include Constantinos Efstathiou of Cyprus from the Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group; Adam Bodnar of Poland from the European People’s Party Group (EPP); Christophe Brico of Monaco from the same group; and Ricardo Carvalho of Portugal, also from the EPP.
