NEWS CENTER - The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe urged Turkey to implement the ECtHR's rulings on imprisoned politician Selahattin Demirtaş and release him.

 

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, at its 1537th meeting held on 15-17 September 2025, put the implementation of Selahattin Demirtaş (No. 2), former Co-Chair of the Peoples' Democracy Party (HDP), and related cases back on the agenda. Recalling the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the Committee emphasised that Demirtaş and other elected MPs were detained without sufficient evidence, that these detentions were politically motivated and violated the rights to freedom of expression and political representation.

 

The Committee of Ministers expressed deep concern that the Constitutional Court has still not examined the applications and urged Turkey to take steps to immediately release Demirtaş and the other applicants in line with ECtHR judgements. The Committee also recommended that alternative measures be considered by the courts.

 

In the context of general measures, the Committee criticised Turkey's current constitutional and legislative framework, which it considered sufficient and emphasised that it did not guarantee political pluralism and the free functioning of opposition representatives. The high number of recent attempts to lift parliamentary immunity and the arrests of elected mayors were also a cause for concern. The Committee called on Turkey to undertake legal reforms to strengthen political pluralism and guarantee freedom of expression, and to provide training for prosecutors and judges in line with ECtHR standards.

 

More generally, the Committee encouraged the authorities to take further note of the "National Solidarity, Brotherhood and Democracy Commission" and the "free-terror Türkiye" and invited the authorities to co-operate with the Committee and the Secretariat with a view to making progress in the implementation of the individual and general measures in this case. 

 

The Committee of Ministers will reconsider the individual measures at its meeting in December 2025 and the general measures in March 2026.