Turkey's Constitutional Court receives almost as many applications as the ECHR from 47 countries

President of the Constitutional Court (AYM) Prof. Dr. Zühtü Arslan attended the meeting organized within the scope of the "Project to Support the Effective Implementation of the Decisions of the Constitutional Court in the Field of Fundamental Rights" implemented by the Council of Europe. In his speech, Zühtü Arslan said, "There are currently nearly 70,000 applications ready to be heard before the ECtHR, and these applications are received from 47 countries. The Constitutional Court alone receives almost as many applications as the ECHR receives from 47 countries."

The meeting held in a hotel in Istanbul was attended by the President of the Ankara Office of the Council of Europe, Cristian Urse, the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Judges and Prosecutors Mehmet Akif Ekinci, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor Şaban Yılmaz, the Istanbul Regional Court of Justice President Murat Boylu and many judges and prosecutors. Making a speech at the opening, President of the Constitutional Court Zühtü Arslan stated that the number of applications made in Turkey is almost the same as the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Stating that 12 thousand individual applications were made in January, Arslan argued that this situation makes things difficult.

PRACTICAL OBJECTIVE OF THE NATIONAL APPLICATION

In his speech, Zühtü Arslan said, "When we think that the individual application entered our system with the 2010 constitutional amendment in Turkey, it is necessary to look at the reason for the constitutional amendment. When you look at this justification, there are two things. First, it is to prevent claims of violation of rights from being settled within national borders and brought to the European Court of Human Rights."

Arslan said, “In other words, to reduce the number of applications made to the ECtHR against Turkey and to reduce the number of violations in connection with this. The practical purpose of this national application. Of course, there is also a principled purpose. This is to raise the standard of protection of fundamental rights and freedoms. Indeed, despite all the difficulties and the increasing workload, individual application has been established as an effective remedy in Turkey and continues on its way. The workload has grown dramatically. Today, there are approximately 66 thousand individual applications before the Constitutional Court. In order to express how frightening this figure is, we need to look at the number of applications from countries like ours that have adopted the individual application system. For example, although the German and Spanish Constitutional Courts switched to the individual application system much earlier than us, there are too few applications to compare with our number of applications.

Arslan said, “Let me express this much; The number of applications we received in January 2022 is close to 12 thousand. This number is more than the annual number of applications by the German and Spanish Constitutional Courts. Therefore, the only competitor of the Constitutional Court in individual applications is the European Court of Human Rights. There are currently close to 70 thousand applications before the ECtHR, and these applications are received from 47 countries. The Constitutional Court alone receives as many applications as the ECHR from 47 countries. Therefore, this issue is one of the urgent issues that needs to be resolved. Another threat that prevents the Constitutional Court from doing its job is the failure to implement its objective effect. By this we mean this. "The purpose of the individual application is not to destroy mosquitoes one by one, but to dry the swamp that produces mosquitoes," he said. (EVRENSEL DAILY)