@techreport{KurbanEroezdenGuelalp, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Kurban, Dilek and Er{\"o}zden, Ozan and G{\"u}lalp, Haldun}, title = {Supranational rights litigation, implementation and the domestic impact of Strasbourg Court jurisprudence: A Case Study of Turkey}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-17581}, pages = {56}, abstract = {This report provides an extensive mapping of the strategic litigation of minorities in Turkey before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the substance and implementation of the EctHR's judgments in these cases and the overall impact these judgments have had on human rights protection in Turkey. While the ECtHR case law played an indispensable role in bringing to light the egregious human rights record of the Turkish Government in late 1980s and early 1990s, the report demonstrates, the relative change in government policies came with the emergence of the EU as an actor in Turkish politics. On the other hand, while forcing the government to start cooperating with the ECtHR, the EU process has not resulted in structural changes in Turkey's legal regime and politics.}, language = {en} } @incollection{KurbanGulalp, author = {Kurban, Dilek and Gulalp, Haldun}, title = {A complicated affair: Turkey's Kurds and the European Court of Human Rights}, series = {The European Court of Human Rights: Implementing Strasbourg's Judgments on Domestic Policy}, booktitle = {The European Court of Human Rights: Implementing Strasbourg's Judgments on Domestic Policy}, publisher = {Edinburgh Univ. Press}, address = {Edinburgh}, isbn = {978 0 7486 7057 4}, publisher = {Hertie School}, pages = {166 -- 187}, abstract = {Obsessed with the preservation of national unity and homogeneity, the Turkish state has since its inception had little tolerance for Kurdish demands for greater legal recognition and a measure of autonomy. However, its 1987 decision to give its citizens the right to petition the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to enhance its chances for membership to the European Union (EU) obliged the state to confront, at the transnational level, the Kurdish demands for human rights protection and equal treatment. The cases taken to the ECtHR by Kurdish civilians revealed that cloaked in the language of 'war on terrorism', the Turkish military had committed egregious violations including the forced displacement of civilians , the destruction of property, the burning of forests, as well as extra-judicial killings, disappearances and torture. Turkey's EU candidacy increased the existing international pressure on the government to revise its mode of dealing with the insurgency and with Kurdish political and cultural demands more generally. The EU demanded that Turkey first and foremost execute the ECtHR's judgments on Kurdish issues, but also grant the Kurds limited linguistic rights in order to fulfil minority rights protection as part of the membership accession criteria. Yet, as argued in this chapter, although there has been some improvement, the problem has not been eradicated nor has there been any substantive change in government policy on the Kurdish question.}, language = {en} }