ECHR requests defence from Turkey over Demirtaş and the detained MPs

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which is examining the applications by HDP Co-Chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ and the other detained HDP MPs, has asked Turkey for its defence.

According to a report by Hacı Bişkin from Gazete Duvar, lawyer Ramazan Demir, who announced the decision, made the following statement:

‘This decision passed by the ECHR is important both because a defence has been requested from Turkey as to the Constitutional Court’s effectiveness and also because it has asked if the detaining of the parliamentarians has been done for a political purpose. A further importance of this decision passed by the court is that the ECHR was later in requesting a defence when we previously applied for the detained journalists in Turkey than with this decision. These applications are the first applications in which the matter of political detentions having become a means of intimidation has come up for discussion. Consequently, the important questions of whether there has been a violation of the right to vote and stand for election and over the ineffectiveness of the Constitutional Court have also been raised in this decision of the ECHR.’

Demir has indicated that the ECHR has given Turkey until 20 October 2017 for its defence.