Euro court gave Turkey fines worth 258 million liras between 2004 and 2016

ANKARA

Turkey was fined some 258 million Turkish Liras by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) between 2004 and 2016, according to data released by the Justice Ministry.

The court issued a total of 485 rulings stating that Turkey committed rights violations after complaints filed against the country between 2012 and 2016, according to the data.

Justice Minister Abdülhamit Gül released the statistics upon a parliamentary question issued by main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Deputy Chair Zeynep Altıok.

“Turkey has become the leading country by far in terms of human rights violations among European countries,” Altıok said after receiving the statistics.

She also blasted the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for “making Turkey the top country where human rights have been seized in Europe.”

According to the statistics, a total of 2,328 complaints were filed to the ECHR against Turkey in 2006, 2,828 in 2007, 3,706 in 2008, 4,474 in 2009, 5,821 in 2010, 8,668 in 2011, 9,098 in 2012, 3,505 in 2013, 1,584 in 2014, 2,212 in 2015 and 8,308 in 2016.

The court ruled that there had been 117 rights violations in 2012, 118 violations in 2013, 94 violations in 2014, 79 violations in 2015 and 77 violations in 2016, the ministry also stated.

In total, Turkey was ordered to pay 258 million liras in compensation to the victims between 2004 and 2016, with the highest fine imposed in 2011 with over 37 million liras. After 2010, 2011 followed with more than 33 million liras in fines, while 2016 was the third worst year with 28 million liras. The year 2015 saw the lowest number of fines handed to Turkey, which was sentenced to pay 7.5 million liras to victims in that year.

Commenting on the statistics, Altıok said the top two areas of Turkey’s violations were in the right to freedom of expression and the right to a fair trial.

“We previously released a report called ‘The AKP’s Human Rights Report Card.’ Afterward, motions demanding parliamentary investigations into unsolved political murders were rejected with the votes of AKP deputies. The number of those under arrest surpassed 200,000 in the AKP era,” Altıok said, adding that Turkey has fallen from 99th place to 113rd in the World Rule of Law Index.

“President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan filed 1,845 insult cases in his first year-and-a-half in office, which is a record in the history of the Republic,” she also added.

When all the statistics are combined, the ECHR ruled for a total of 7,286 rights violations in the last 57 years, Altıok said, noting that 1,497 of these rulings were in cases against Turkey.

The CHP deputy chair also said Turkey has had problems in paying the fines in the determined time period.

“We are sentenced over rights violations but do not pay the fine. This is itself yet another another violation of the law and a human rights violation,” Altıok said.