Turkey: controversial visit by the President of the European Court of Human Rights

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President of the European Court of Human Rights Robert Spano on September 3, 2020 in Ankara.

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The President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Robert Spano, has been on an official visit to Turkey since September 3.

In this country frequently singled out for its breaches of the rule of law, the European lawyer was received in Ankara by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

This Friday, September 4, Istanbul University is due to give him a distinction that makes Turkey cringe.

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With our correspondent in Istanbul,

Anne Andlauer

It is not so much Robert Spano's visit to Turkey that poses a problem for local human rights defenders, nor his meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

As the latter had called on him to do, the President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) reminded the Turkish leader that states have an obligation to execute the judgments of the Court.

In a speech to the Academy of Justice, he also pleaded at length for the independence of the judiciary, observing that “ 

those in power cannot control the courts

 ”.

In fact, another step in Robert Spano's program is controversial: his passage, this Friday, September 4, by the University of Istanbul, from which he should be awarded an honorary doctorate.

This distinction goes badly

among the more than 6,000 academics sacked after the failed coup in summer 2016

, including 192 at Istanbul University, the fourth institution most affected by the purges.

Turkey tops the list of countries that have committed the most violations since the creation of the European Court of Human Rights in 1959. In recent years, the country has refused to release several emblematic figures, including the former co-leader of the pro-Kurdish party

Selahattin Demirtas

, in spite of judgments in this direction of the European institution.

► (Re) listen: Human rights defenders targeted in Turkey

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