Following an urgent debate held in plenary session in Strasbourg, PACE noted “the worsening of the situation of opposition politicians in Turkey” and called on the Turkish authorities to respect fully their rights and freedoms of expression, association and assembly.
Following the co-rapporteurs' conclusions on this issue, Marianne Mikko (Estonia, SOC) and Nigel Evans (United Kingdom, EC), the Assembly recommended, in particular, guaranteeing parliamentary immunity, and called the Turkish authorities to “release MPs and former MPs whose immunity was stripped in 2016 in violation of the Council of Europe standards”.
In this context, in the case Demirtas v. Turkey, the Assembly called on Turkey to fully implement the Chamber judgment of the European Court of Human Rights.
In the resolution adopted today, the Assembly also recalled concerns expressed in its previous resolutions regarding restrictions on freedom of expression and the media, the detention and imprisonment of opposition parliamentarians, former parliamentarians and local elected representatives who have “obstructed or undermined the ability of opposition politicians to exercise their rights and fulfil their democratic roles both inside and outside parliament”.
