PROJE HAKKINDA.

[Istanbul: November 3, 2026] -- The Turkish authorities are misusing powers of detention and prosecution against opposition politicians in Türkiye to prevent them from participating effectively in elections or political life, the Turkey Litigation Support Project, Human Rights Watch, and the International Commission of Jurists said today.

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The three groups have submitted a third-party intervention – or amicus brief – to the European Court of Human Rights with information on patterns of human rights violations, abuse of the criminal law, and the erosion of judicial independence in Türkiye. The intervention was made in a case brought by the Istanbul mayor and opposition politician Ekrem İmamoğlu to the Strasbourg court asserting   that his detention violates his rights protected under provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, including Article 5 (right to liberty and security), Article 18 (limitation on use of restrictions on rights), and Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention (right to free elections).

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“Detaining political opponents and perceived dissenting voices to remove them from political life and to silence them has become a familiar playbook in Türkiye,” said Ayşe Bingöl Demir at the Turkey Litigation Support Project. “The case before the European Court of Human Rights reviewing the detention of Ekrem İmamoğlu raises issues also highlighted in earlier cases reviewed by the court.” 

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The Turkish authorities arrested İmamoğlu on March 19, 2025 and a court placed him in pretrial detention the same day the Republican People’s Party (CHP) designated him as a candidate for a future presidential election. He remains detained and has been suspended from his office as a mayor during his ongoing trial on charges including “establishing and leading a criminal organization,” “accepting bribes,” and “interfering with public tenders.”  

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İmamoğlu’s detention is part of a larger wave of arrests, detention, and prosecutions carried out since 2025 targeting the CHP, which was Türkiye’s largest opposition party at the time of his arrest.  Between March 2025 and August 2026, 43 municipalities run by the party reportedly became subject to judicial proceedings, and 31 CHP mayors were detained.

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 In May 2026, the  Ankara regional court of appeal issued a controversial decision to remove Özgür Özel, as the elected head of the CHP, under whose leadership Ekrem İmamoğlu's candidacy had been declared. Following Özel’s removal, the party leadership split, with the majority of its members of parliament opting to establish and join the New Party (Yeni Party) in July 2026.

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The use of detention and prosecution against İmamoğlu and other elected officials recalls the 2016-17 waves of arrests of the leadership and members of parliament from the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). The European Court of Human Rights found that the detention of HDP co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ Şenoğlu and 15 other members of parliament and politicians from the party pursued an ulterior purpose of “stifling pluralism and limiting freedom of political debate, the very core of the concept of a democratic society.”

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“In reviewing the legitimacy of Ekrem İmamoğlu’s detention, the European Court of Human Rights will be examining a case that bears many similarities to the detentions of the Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş and others it has already adjudicated,” said Aisling Reidy, senior legal advisor at Human Rights Watch. “In those cases the court immediately ordered their release and found that Turkish authorities are responsible for politically motivated detentions aimed at removing elected officials from political life, a fundamental violation of their rights, the rights of voters and of the democratic process.”

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Recalling the safeguards imposed by human rights law and standards on the prosecution and detention of opposition politicians, the three groups assert that the Turkish authorities have shown systematic disregard for those safeguards, and instead are engaged in a pattern of abusive application of the criminal law using “terrorism,” “organized crime,” and other serious charges against elected officials of Türkiye’s main opposition parties. 

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The groups stressed that the misuse of detention orders and the institution of spurious criminal charges is likely to engender a chilling effect on pluralism and to thereby interfere with the right to run for election and to hold elected office, and therefore with the right of voters to their chosen representatives.

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The European Court will also scrutinize whether the Turkish authorities have violated article 18 of the Convention that prohibits restricting rights for ulterior purposes. In cases against Georgia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine, the court has found government authorities invoked criminal charges such as “abuse of office” and “misappropriation” against political opposition or civil society figures to pursue ulterior motives.

 Since 2019, the court has issued eight judgments concerning HDP politicians and the human rights defender Osman Kavala, in which it found Türkiye had violated article 18. 

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The amicus brief also sets out that the erosion of judicial independence in Türkiye, including the failure of lower courts to comply with decisions of the Constitutional Court, deprives opposition politicians of meaningful domestic protection.

“As the intervention argues, for over a decade the erosion of the rule of law and judicial independence in Türkiye has had a damaging effect on democratic pluralism and on the right to free elections”, said Temur Shakirov, Director of Europe and Central Asia Programme at the International Commission of Jurists. “Given that context, we trust that the European Court of Human Rights will continue to apply the closest scrutiny to the prosecution and detention of opposition politicians in Türkiye.”​