Turkey has appealed the European Court of Human Rights Second Chamber’s ruling on July 8, 2025, which found violations in the case of former HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş. The ECHR had ruled that Demirtaş’s re-arrest in connection with the “Kobanê Case” was “legally problematic,” finding the evidence insufficient and determining that the detention was politically motivated. The court ordered Turkey to pay Demirtaş €55,745 in compensation.
The Turkish government has requested that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber for reconsideration. The deadline for appeal was October 8.
Demirtaş was sentenced to 42 years in prison in a politically motivated trial conducted by the pro-government judiciary in connection with the 2014 Kobanê resistance. In the same case, Figen Yüksekdağ received 30 years and 3 months, while other HDP executives were sentenced to up to 22 years and 6 months.
Although ECHR rulings are binding for Turkey, there are several examples of noncompliance, including the cases of Demirtaş and Osman Kavala. The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers continues to monitor whether Turkey is implementing these decisions but has so far limited its response to granting extensions.
DEM Party Group Deputy Chairs Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit and Sezai Temelli, along with the party’s MPs, said in a press statement in front of the Ministry of Justice that the government was buying time with “legal maneuvers” instead of implementing the European Court of Human Rights rulings.
Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit said that Turkey has been turned into an “open prison,” adding, “When we look at who is at the center of this practice, we see the Minister of Justice and the AKP government as the very executors of this practice.”
Recalling that the ECHR had ruled for the third time that Demirtaş’s rights had been violated, Koçyiğit said, “Instead of implementing the ECHR rulings, the ministry and the government are trying to manipulate the situation, by circumventing the law, buying time, and playing legal games, rather than securing the freedoms of our friends arising from international universal rights and the law.”
Koçyiğit pointed out that public concerns are growing, and appealed to the government, “Implement the ECHR rulings. Don’t further undermine public trust. Society sees what you are doing, and this has consequences for the process. With an approach that ignores this, it is impossible for us to make progress in either peace or democracy in this country.”
Sezai Temelli described the Ministry of Justice’s appeal against the ECHR ruling as “not law, but a conspiracy” and said: “We expect the Ministry of Justice to withdraw its appeal. We do not accept that a peace process, a negotiation process that we have conducted with such sacrifice and responsibility, would be poisoned by the Ministry of Justice itself. The Minister of Justice must withdraw this appeal immediately.”
On the other hand, DEM Party deputies protested the Ministry of Justice’s appeal against the ECHR ruling in the General Assembly of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM).
During the General Assembly session on Wednesday, DEM Party MPs stood up and protested Turkey’s appeal with applause.
The MPs carried banners displaying photos of politicians detained in the Kobanê Trial and Selahattin Demirtaş, former Co-Chair of the HDP.
During the protest, the MPs chanted “Freedom for Demirtaş” and “Enforce the ECHR rulings”, with prolonged applause rising from the DEM Party group benches.
