Justice and Politics
For Turkey’s Purge Victims, ECHR Ruling Creates Both Hope and Dismay
While the ECHR ruling establishes that the rights of purge victims were violated in Turkey after the coup, it unwittingly justifies the entire legal context of the emergency rule.
In a landmark decision that could set a precedent, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) unanimously ruled last week that the rights of a purge victim, Hamit Piskin, were violated by the Turkish authorities in the aftermath of 2016. The outcome has generated mixed reactions across Turkey. As observers and purge victims were braced for the long-anticipated ruling, it not only created a glimmer of hope but also radiated anxiety over the long-term implications for the ongoing trials in Turkey.
While many embraced it as a welcoming step vindicating the gross violations that took place during the sweeping purge, some exercised caution. Several Turkish legal experts, who command a decent understanding of the details, even exuded an unconcealed sense of dismay over the ECHR’s not-so-subtle justification of the legal context of the emergency rule itself.
