Turkey has paid €33 million to ECHR cases

Turkey has to date paid €33 million in indemnity over judgments made by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Responding to a bill of question that was filed by Hatay MP Mehmet Erarslan, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul replied that the cases concerning the ECHR presently were filed in the mid-90s, a period of time when Turkey was behind European norms, which inevitably had a negative effect on the rulings. Gul noted that the judicial proceedings in the ECHR usually lasted up to seven or eight years and that this should also be taken into consideration when evaluating the overall picture. “The suits which came to a conclusion drew on applications filed in the mid-90’s. The pace of the reforms in Turkey increased in 2001. The applications that antedate the new legal arrangements, however, have not yet come to a conclusion,” said Gul. Gul also provided an inventory of the suits that were concerns of Turkey at the end of 2004. Accordingly, there are 9,591 applications before the ECHR, 4,000 of which have been communicated to the government. The ECHR ruled in favor of Turkey in only 49 of the “acceptable” applications. In 567 applications the ECHR determined a violation. A total of 231 applications were concluded with a friendly settlement. Turkey has paid €18 million for rulings of violation and €15 million for friendly settlements.�