President of the Turkish Constitutional Court Mr. Zühtü Arslan held a meeting with the President of the ECtHR Mr. Robert Spano.

Deputy Presidents of the Turkish Constitutional Court Mr. Hasan Tahsin Gökcan and Mr. Kadir Özkaya and the delegation of the ECtHR, Ms. Saadet Yüksel, Judge of the ECtHR and Mr. Hasan Bakırcı, Deputy Registrar of Section 2 of the ECtHR, also attended the meeting.

President Arslan expressed, first of all, his gratitude for Mr. Spano’s visit to Turkey. Then Mr. Arslan congratulated Mr. Spano on his being elected as the President of the ECtHR last May, and wished him success in his new post.

Underlying that the visit will reinforce the cooperation between the ECtHR and Turkey, Mr. Arslan shared information on the work and the case-law of the Constitutional Court.

President Arslan emphasized that dialogue and meetings, the assignment of the Constitutional Court’s Rapporteurs to the ECtHR and the project on Supporting the Effective Implementation of Turkish Constitutional Court Judgments in the field of Fundamental Rights jointly conducted with the Council of Europe are important for the development of the relation between the two institutions.

President of the ECtHR Mr. Spano also stressed the importance of the relations between the two institutions and expressed his wish to strengthen the dialogue and cooperation between the ECtHR and Turkey during his term of presidency.

Highlighting the importance on maintaining the effectiveness of the individual application to the Constitutional Court, Mr. Spano expressed his conviction that can be achieved through dialogue and cooperation despite the disagreements on some specific matters.