Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey won’t recognize Council of Europe

Turkey won’t recognize the Council of Europe if it does now not recognize Turkish courts, President Tayyip Erdogan stated on Thursday, when requested a few determination to refer the case towards philanthropist Osman Kavala again to a best Eu courtroom.

Kavala, one in all Turkey’s highest-profile detainees, has been held for greater than 4 years with no conviction.

The Eu Court docket of Human Rights (ECHR) dominated greater than two years in the past that Kavala must be launched in an instant and stated his detention served to silence him, however Turkey has now not performed the ruling.

The Council stated on Thursday that its committee had referred the case to the ECHR to resolve whether or not Turkey has failed to fulfill its legal responsibility to put in force the courtroom’s judgment, in step with the Eu Conference on Human Rights.

The referral to the ECHR is your next step in “infringement court cases” that might lead to Turkey’s suspension from the Council of Europe, of which this is a founding member.

Ayse Bugra, spouse of philanthropist Osman Kavala, talks to the media in entrance of the courthouse after a listening to of Kavala and 15 others over their function in national protests in 2013, in Istanbul, Turkey, November 26, 2021. REUTERS/Umit Bektas/Document Photograph

“The Committee discovered that, by means of failing to verify Mr Kavala’s quick unencumber, Turkey is refusing to abide by means of the Court docket’s ultimate judgment in his case,” it stated in a commentary.

At a information convention, Erdogan stated Turkey won’t recognise those that don’t recognise its courts.

“What the ECHR has stated, what the Council of Europe says, this doesn’t fear us a lot as a result of we predict our courts to be revered,” he stated.

“To people who don’t display this recognize: excuse us, however we will be able to don’t have any recognize for them both,” Erdogan added.

The international ministry stated on Wednesday that Turkey had performed the ECHR ruling and that Kavala was once detained for a distinct judicial continuing.

Kavala was once acquitted in 2020 of fees associated with 2013 national protests. Hours later, some other courtroom ordered his arrest in response to a fee of making an attempt to overthrow the constitutional order associated with the 2016 coup try, which the ECHR had additionally stated lacked foundation.

That courtroom later dominated to unencumber him on that fee however ordered his detention on an espionage fee in the similar case, a transfer critics stated was once geared toward circumventing the ECHR ruling.