Türkiye is implementing an extensive new legal reform as part of a fourth strategic document slated to be unveiled this fall, according to Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç.
“Preparations for the fourth legal reform strategic document are close to completion, which will be the first document of the ‘Century of Türkiye,’” Tunç said at a human rights training program organized by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in the capital Ankara on Monday.
The "Century of Türkiye" is a public vision the AK Party disclosed in 2022, encapsulating an ambitious set of political, economic, social and cultural innovations and developments it aims to accomplish to celebrate Türkiye’s centenary as a republic, which was marked in October last year.
Tunç said the document, the latest in the judicial reform process the AK Party government launched in 2009, has been penned with the input of the judiciary, bars, universities, nongovernmental organizations and civilians.
“Over 10,000 citizens have sent their opinions in a week when we asked them what they wanted the reform to include,” Tunç said.
The document’s principles will be carried out over the next four years.
AK Party Chair and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will be personally announcing the document by the end of September, according to the minister.
Tunç’s office is also close to finishing a draft of the Human Rights Action Plan, the first of which was enforced in 2014 and the second in 2021.
“Between the end of October and the start of December, President Erdoğan will unveil this plan to the public and we will reveal what fields will be reformed,” Tunç noted.
Türkiye’s Human Rights Action Plan aims to strengthen rights protections, individual freedom and security, judicial independence, personal privacy, transparency and property rights, as well as to protect vulnerable groups and enhance administrative and social awareness of human rights.
The package introduced in 2021 included new regulations on access to justice, tax crimes, children’s courts, expansion of the definition of the crime of violence against women and its punishment and that individuals will not be deprived of their freedom due to their expression of opinion.
It also reiterated its commitment to the Constitutional Court of Türkiye and the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) criteria but did not change the definition of terrorism, which the EU had stipulated as a condition for visa liberalization at the time.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and Ankara disagree on several rulings concerning the cases of individuals charged with terrorism, most notably Osman Kavala. Kavala faced charges over the 2013 Gezi Park protests, a small number of demonstrations in Istanbul, Türkiye, which later transformed into nationwide riots that left eight protesters and a police officer dead.
He was acquitted of all charges in February 2020, but an appeals court overturned the verdict in January 2022. Kavala was also accused of involvement in the 2016 defeated coup orchestrated by the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) in Türkiye.
The EU accuses Türkiye of not complying with ECtHR rulings and Ankara is often criticized for the Kavala case, which Tunç dismissed as “negative propaganda.”
“When we look at the last 10 years of ECtHR rulings, the number of violations was 10,252 out of 673,820 cases. Türkiye has had 95,810 cases at the ECHR in these 10 years and the number of violated rulings was 1,126, according to the court,” Tunç said. “This means a 1.17% violation rate, compared to the 1.52% average of all the other countries.”
“But the criticism is that Türkiye has the highest violation rate in the ECHR. The number is of course high but in terms of the violation rate, we are below average,” Tunç argued.
