"Constitutional Court Conformity Bill" Approved

The draft law on the restructuring of the Constitutional Court (AYM) was passed into law by the General Assembly of the Turkish Great National Assembly (TBMM) on 30 March.

According to the "Constitutional Court Conformity Draft Bill", individual appeals against decisions of the Council of State or the Court of Appeals will be directed to the Constitutional Court instead of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) as of 23 September 2012.

The right to individual applications to the Constitutional Court was accepted in the course of the referendum on the constitutional reform package held on 12 September 2010.

Limit to compensation fines

With the new regulation, individuals can apply to the Constitutional Court by reasons of breaches of fundamental rights and freedoms. If the determined violation stems from a court, the file will be returned to the court to be re-tried.

As far as closure decisions of political parties decreed by the Constitutional Court are considered, a re-evaluation of the decision can be requested. Furthermore, the upper limit for compensation fines was set at TL 2,000 (approx. € 1,000)

"Constitutional Court not in line with ECHR"

Lawyer Ergin Cinmen remarked that the parliamentary decision could be "the reason for serious problems" since the basis for such a decision has not been prepared yet.

In an interview with bianet Çinmen stated, "If it is put down as a condition to resort to the Constitutional Court before applying to the ECHR, trial procedures will be prolonged and justice will delayed even further. This means several years of waiting time for applying to the ECHR. This regulation will result in big complications".

"It will be impossible for the Constitutional Court to perform this duty. In fact, people applied to the ECHR because the Constitutional Court is not in compliance with the agreements of the ECHR. Regarding closure trials of political parties for instance, the Constitutional Court was convicted. It is wrong to transfer the function of the ECHR to a court that is not in line with the agreements of the ECHR".

"The Constitutional Court is not able to try that many cases. The judges are not authorized for this and their number is insufficient. With this structure, it is impossible for the Constitutional Court to handle all cases. There will be a huge congestion. (...)"

"The decisions will be taken by a single man. The President of the Constitutional Court, Haşim Kılıç, will be entitled to overturn court decisions on his own".

"Additionally, the Court of Appeals and the Council of State will have to solve almost one million files. That is another problem".

Turkey takes the lead of trials related to violations of rights

Lawyer Özcan Kılıç pointed out that the ECHR is going to evaluate the law and issue a referring statement. "The ECHR holds the view that domestic remedies in Turkey are being insufficient. However, this is not what was meant when they called on "opening domestic remedies'. The lengthening of procedures by the Constitutional Court will also create problems", Kılıç warned.

Turkey is on second position right after Russia regarding the number of applications to the ECHR. According to the ECHR's statistics, a total of 15,206 trials were pending against Turkey at the end of 2010. With 2,245 convictions, Turkey ranks at the top position regarding the total number of ECHR convictions in 2010. The right to resort to the ECHR was enshrined in the course of legal amendments made in 1987. (AS/EÖ/VK)