A delegation led by President of the Constitutional Court Mr. Kadir Özkaya paid a working visit to France on 6-9 November 2024 for reinforcing bilateral relations in the international arena. The delegation accompanying President Özkaya was comprised of Vice-President Mr. Basri Bağcı, as well as Justices, the Secretary General, chief rapporteur-judges and rapporteur-judges of the Court.

As a part of their visit, the Court’s delegation engaged in high-level discussions with their counterparts from the French Constitutional Council (Conseil Constitutionnel) and French Council of State (Conseil d'État) in Paris. Mr. Laurent Fabius, President of the French Constitutional Council, welcomed the Turkish delegation with a brief introduction about the working procedures and principles adopted by the French Constitutional Council in the constitutionality review process. Subsequently, President Özkaya delivered his addresses by outlining the constitutionality review mechanism in Türkiye. He expressed his sincere hope for the enhanced cooperation and dialogue between the Turkish Constitutional Court and the French Constitutional Council.

The Turkish delegation also attended a reception hosted by Ambassador Mr. Yunus Demirer at the Turkish Embassy in Paris. After their contacts in Paris, the delegation headed to Strasbourg for attending the meeting to be held at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Following the bilateral discussions between President Özkaya and Mr. Marko Bošnjak, President of the ECHR, the meeting started with opening remarks by the Presidents of both Courts.

In his address, President Özkaya highlighted that the Turkish Constitutional Court considered the ECHR’s judgments as key benchmarks in setting human rights standards in line with universal criteria. He further stated that in examining individual applications before it, the Court strictly followed the ECHR’s jurisprudence in order to afford the best possible protection to fundamental rights and freedoms.

Referring to the Court’s guide on the judgments of the Court and the ECHR, as an indicative of the Court’s effort to scrutinise the ECHR’s judgments, President Özkaya noted that the guide was intended for indicating the divergences between the case-law of the Court and the ECHR, as well as the underlying grounds. He further stated that the guide was updated on a monthly basis and regularly shared with the justices and rapporteur-judges of the Court.

President Özkaya recalled that there was a very limited number of judgments where the Court diverged from the ECHR’s case-law, and that apart from these few exceptions, the rulings of these two Courts largely exhibited a significant degree of consistency.

Pointing to the Turkish Constitutional Court’s extensive efforts to address the human rights-related claims of the individuals and to prevent human rights violations, President Özkaya stated “In this regard, strengthening the continued cooperation between the ECHR and the Turkish judicial system will be instrumental in overcoming the challenges we encounter. We firmly believe that, in line with our shared responsibilities, our cooperation in pursuit of human rights must be further strengthened in light of European values. Türkiye currently shelters approximately 4.5 million refugees—a figure surpassing the population of many European countries. Meanwhile, Türkiye is still fighting against terrorist organizations such as the FETÖ and the PKK. Despite the challenges posed by sheltering such a significant number of refugees and countering multiple terrorist threats, I would like to point out that Türkiye remains committed to acting within constitutional limits and having due regard to human rights to the greatest extent possible. It is also imperative to acknowledge such circumstances surrounding Türkiye.”

The meeting proceeded with a series of sessions. The first session on “Subsidiarity principle: Implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights by the National Courts as the First Guardians of Human Rights” featured presentations by Mr. Engin Yıldırım, Justice of the Court, and Mr. Arnfinn Bårdsen, Vice-President of the ECHR. During the second session on “Mass Arrivals of Applications: Challenges and Possible Solutions,” Mr. Basri Bağcı, Vice-President of the Court, and Ms. Saadet Yüksel, Turkish Judge at the ECHR, delivered their presentations. The sessions concluded with the Q&A discussions. The delegation of the Turkish Constitutional Court then convened with members of the Turkish Unit of the ECHR Registry for the exchange of insights and experiences.

At the end of the program, Mr. Gianluca Esposito, Director General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe, paid a courtesy visit to President Özkaya at the ECHR building.

As part of their visit to Strasbourg, President Özkaya and the Justices also attended the reception hosted by the Permanent Representation of Türkiye to the Council of Europe where they met with Ambassador Ms. Nurdan Bayraktar Golder.