President of the Constitutional Court Mr. Kadir Özkaya attended the official opening ceremony of the judicial year of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which was held in Strasbourg, France, on 31 January 2025.

The official opening of the ECHR’s judicial year gathered a high-level participation from Türkiye. Among the distinguished attendees were President of the Constitutional Court Mr. Kadir Özkaya, President of the Court of Cassation Mr. Ömer Kerkez, President of the Council of State Mr. Zeki Yiğit, Chief Public Prosecutor of the Court of Cassation Mr. Muhsin Şentürk, Member of the Constitutional Court Mr. Yıldız Seferinoğlu, and Secretary General of the Constitutional Court Mr. Murat Azaklı.

President Özkaya and President of the ECHR Mr. Marko Bošnjak met as part of the programme. President Özkaya congratulated Mr. Bošnjak on his speech marking the opening of the judicial year.

The opening ceremony was proceeded with the judicial seminar on “Protecting Human Rights in a World of Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms and Big Data”. The seminar, chaired by ECHR’s Turkish Judge Ms. Saadet Yüksel as the head of the organising committee, covered topics including “Council of Europe/European Standards on Artificial Intelligence: Setting the Scene”, “Freedom of Expression in the age of Artificial Intelligence”, “Artificial Intelligence and the Right to a Fair Trial” and “Addressing Potential Discrimination in Artificial Intelligence”.

President Özkaya expressed his appreciation to ECHR’s Turkish Judge Ms. Saadet Yüksel on her outstanding presentation and her eminent role in organising the seminar.

As part of his visit in Strasbourg, President Özkaya also met with Ambassador Ms. Nurdan Bayraktar Golder, Türkiye’s Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe.