The Council of Europe issues warning to Turkey over the detention of Osman Kavala and Selahattin Demirtaş
Last month the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers agreed to initiate the infringement process against Turkey in December unless it complies with a European Court of Human Rights ruling and releases political prisoner Osman Kavala. Kavala has been unjustly jailed for almost four years. The Council of Europe’s warning also urged Ankara to comply with another recent ECHR ruling to immediately free Kurdish opposition leader Selahattin Demirtaş, the leader of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), who has been imprisoned since 2016. Merve Tahiroglu joins The Greek Current to discuss this latest warning from the Council of Europe, and explore what’s at stake should Turkey fail to comply with the European Court of Human Rights.
Merve Tahiroglu is the Turkey Coordinator at POMED - the Project on Middle East Democracy.
Read Merve Tahiroglu’s latest op-ed for POMED here: Turkey in Trouble at the Council of Europe
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