According to the Court’s annual statistics, issued on 21 January, 889 judgments were delivered in 2001 and 8,989 judicial decisions were taken where applications were ruled inadmissible or struck out, compared to 695 judgments and 6,769 cases struck out or declared inadmissible in 2000. There were 683 judgments giving rise to a finding of at least one violation of the European Convention on Human Rights in 2001. More than half of these concerned Italy (359) and approaching a quarter concerned Turkey (169). Speaking at the Court's annual press conference this morning, President Luzius Wildhaber said 2001 was "a year in which all the records were broken".
According to a research of the Ministry of Interior, the casting of 316 cases that were concluded at ECHR against Turkey by November 2001 are as follows: Right to property (153), right to effective application (29), right to fair trial (27), torture (26), right to life (22), right to liberty and security of person (19), freedom of expression (18), violation of the right to apply (6), right to respect for private life (6), illegal punishment (3), the right to of peaceful assembly and association (3), freedom of conscious and religion (2), right to education (1). 1 application was made in connection with the suspension of freedoms in the state of emergency region. Of the 5 thousand individual applications made to ECHR from Turkey until now, the police was accused in 361 cases. Of these cases, 21 ended in a decision of “violation”, 44 ended in “friendly settlement”, 17 was found “inadmissible”, 10 was “declined”, and 269 are in progress. In the 21 cases Turkey was ordered to pay a compensation of FF1 million 355 thousand, £1 billion 80 thousand 370 and $3.000 in sum. In the 44 cases that ended in friendly settlement, she agreed to pay FF4.031 thousand, DM120.000 and £20.000.
Relying on figures by the Ministry of Justice Dr. Esin Akgün published a thesis in the beginning of December. The study included figures on applications filed against Turkey with ECHR between 1987 and 15 April 2002. Of the 4,570 cases the majority (2,250) had been filed concerning the situation in Cyprus, followed by complaints from the state of emergency region (1,500). In addition, 701 cases of expropriation, 330 cases related to torture and 148 cases related to the right to life had been registered. Only few of the individual petitions had resulted in decisions (269 established at least one violation by Turkey). Having accepted that certain provisions of the EHRC had been violated 130 cases ended in friendly settlements. Turkey was obliged to pay about $ 6.7 million in compensation on the friendly settlements and $ 9.3 million stemming from the verdicts against her. Turkey was the first in line in terms of the cases pending at the ECHR, followed by Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Romania and France. Dr. Akgün commented that there was a decrease in the number of the applications concerning the violations of the right to life and personal security after the amendments made in the legislation regarding the proceedings of detention and arrest. She reported that the Court found 183 cases admissible in 2002.
In April ECHR President Luzius Wildhaber visited Turkey for conferences in İstanbul and meetings with ministers in Ankara. He said that there was decrease in the number of the cases against the Turkish government. Accordingly, the Court revised over 20 thousand cases up to date and some 2,300 cases were pending. Wildhaber said “When we evaluate Turkey’s situation on the basis of the statistics of the past, cases against Turkey cast 8% of the total cases that the Court dealt with. When the ration of cases according to the population of the countries is considered, Turkey is situated somewhere n the middle.” Wildhaber added that Russia was in the first line in terms of the new applications concerning inability to pay the wages of working or retired people and ill-treatment of the police, and Italy ranked in the first line in terms of applications concerning length of criminal proceedings.
In its session on 10 July, Council of Europe Committee of Minister adopted an interim resolution on Turkey's efforts for adopting various reforms necessary to comply with the judgments of the European Court and gave a list of the 42 judgments, which were made between 1996 and 2002 concerning violations of the Convention by the Turkish security forces, and which are pending before the Committee of Ministers for control of execution. The Committee invited the Turkish Government to focus its further efforts on the global reorganization of the basic, in-service and management training of Police and Gendarmerie and to accelerate without delay the reform of its system of criminal prosecution for abuses by members of the security forces. The Committee also expressed its satisfaction concerning the lifting of the state of emergency in South-East Turkey and the Government's withdrawal on 29 January 2002 of
its derogation from certain of its obligations under Article 15 of the European Human Rights Convention. (For the full text of the resolution please visit http://cm.coe.int/stat/E/Public/2002/adopted_texts/resDH/2002resdh98. htm [3].)
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe discussed at its fourth session on 23 September 2002, the Report by Mr. Erik Jurgens (Netherlands, SOC) on the issue of the Implementation of Decisions of the European Court of Human Rights by Turkey. The Assembly upon concluding adopted Recommendation 1576 and Resolution 1297.
Recommendation 1576 (2002) states the following:
"1. The Assembly referring to its Resolution 1297 (2002) on implementation of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights taken by Turkey urges the Committee of Ministers to take all necessary measures to ensure the execution of the Court's decisions without delay, notably by ensuring that the recent legislation of reopening of proceedings enters immediately into force and is made applicable to all cases pending before the Committee of Ministers for control of execution under Article 46 of the Convention;
2. The Assembly in particular expresses its grave concern about Turkey's continued refusal to respect the Court's judgment in the Loizidou case and its invitation to Turkey to ensure payment of the just satisfaction owed to the applicant;
3. Referring also to its Recommendation 1546 (2002) in which it strongly supported the Committee of Ministers appeal to the authorities of the member states to take whatever action they deem necessary to ensure the proper execution of judgments in situations where the Committee of Ministers has found the respondent state to be in breach of its fundamental obligations under the Convention to comply with the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights;
4. Recommends to the Committee of Ministers to consider taking all the necessary measures in case Turkey refuses or continues to delay payment of the just satisfaction, including the seizure of the corresponding sum on Turkey's contribution to the Council of Europe, and the application of a daily fine as already recommended in its Recommendation 1477 (2000);
5. Finally, with respect to the Sakık, Zana, Dicle and Doğan case, the Assembly referring to its Resolution 1297 (2002) and to Turkey's obligation under the Convention to take concrete measures to remedy the consequences of the violation found by the Court, urges the Committee of Ministers to use all means at its disposal to ensure compliance with the judgment without further delay."
Resolution 1297 (2002) states inter alia the following:
"The Assembly accordingly drew up a list of the oldest and/or most important cases still unsolved. These cases notably raised issues relating to respect for life and prohibition of torture, freedom of expression and unfair trial. In addition this list included the Cyprus v. Turkey case and in particular the problem of missing persons and the violations of human rights of the Greek Cypriots in northern Cyprus. (…)
The list finally also included the Loizidou case in which Turkey continues to refuse to take the measures required to comply with its basic obligation under Article 46 (1) to abide by the Court's judgment. (…)
The Assembly also notes with grave concern Turkey's continued refusal to respect the Court's judgments in the Loizidou case. It finds with the Committee of Ministers that this refusal demonstrates a manifest disregard by Turkey for its international obligations, both as a High Contracting Party to the Convention and as a member State of the Council of Europe. The Assembly therefore invites Turkey to ensure payment of the just satisfaction owed to the applicant without any further delay. In case this request is not satisfied, the Assembly will consider the consequences of such a continuing refusal at its session in April 2003."
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Hüseyin Diriöz made a statement and criticized the resolution adopted by the Parliamentarian Assembly. Diriöz said that Turkey had duly executed the judgments of the ECHR and that there was no means for the re-trial of former DEP MPs. He stated that Turkey paid the compensations ordered by ECHR on
time. Diriöz concluded that the judgment of ECHR on Loizidou case was rather a political one, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was the addressee of this matter.