Another chapter closes in Türkiye’s fight against a 2016 coup attempt by the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) and its repercussions. The Inquiry Commission on State of Emergency Measures will cease its operations on Jan. 22 after it released binding decisions over thousands of applications over government decrees.

The commission was founded as an independent body to handle the cases related to investigations following the coup attempt, which forced the country to declare a state of emergency. The state of emergency declared in the immediate aftermath of the quelled coup attempt was lifted in 2018.

For two years, the government sped up the fight against FETÖ and other suspicious groups threatening national security through decrees. This move allowed the government to take swift decisions against suspects deemed flight risks or seizure of their assets and appointment of trustees to commercial and other entities linked to terrorist groups.

Since 2017, the commission received over 127,000 applications and approved over 17,000, while over 109,000 applications were rejected. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) recognized the commission as an effective body for "domestic remedies." The top European court uses the term for cases where plaintiffs should first "exhaust" legal means available in their country before their case is admitted to the international body.

Under the decrees, Türkiye expelled 125,678 people from their public sector jobs, while 3,213 others working in the security forces were demoted. A total of 2,761 companies, institutions and associations were shut down. The commission launched the application process digitally on July 17, 2017, and the decision process in December 2017.

It recruited 205 staff members to handle the cases and set up an IT infrastructure and a data analysis system. A database was set up for about 500,000 documents related to the cases. The commission prioritized the cases of plaintiffs who were acquitted by lower courts.

It handled each case based on evidence demonstrating the applicant’s links to the terrorist groups. It solely focused on whether the decrees rightfully expelled the applicant. The commission set 116 criteria for the analysis of each case, similar to criteria used in criminal investigations toward suspected membership of terrorist groups of people expelled from public duties, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.

Eventually, the commission approved 17,960 applications and rejected 109,332 others. Some applications related to associations, TV stations, newspapers and other entities were deemed to have links to terrorist groups and were closed down by authorities. More than half of rejected cases were related to those sentenced to prison by higher criminal courts, which handle terrorism-related crimes carrying lengthy prison terms.

A report published on the commission’s website highlighted Türkiye has seen a substantial decline in the number of pending cases before the Constitutional Court and the ECtHR since the establishment of the commission.

"Following the coup attempt of July 15, 2016, carried out by the FETÖ/PDY terrorist organization, the number of applications before the European Court of Human Rights against (Türkiye) increased up to 24,600 as of May 31, 2017. Upon the Court’s judgment (in a case dated June 12, 2017), in which the court acknowledged the commission as a domestic remedy, the number of applications before the court against (Türkiye) substantially decreased after similar applications were dismissed by the court," the report underscored.

The report also said that the commission examined every case individually and rendered "a reasoned decision." "When it has been identified as a result of necessary examinations that applicants themselves did not have any connection although it is known that their spouses or family members have membership, connection or association with the FETÖ, the application files have been accepted. In that connection, applications of 1,956 spouses whose spouses’ applications were dismissed because of their connection with the organization in line with the examinations carried out by the commission, have been accepted," the report highlighted.