Turkey Accused of Meddling in European Rights Court Hiring

On Novem­ber 23, 2024, the Nordic Mon­i­tor report­ed that the Turk­ish oppo­si­tion has accused the gov­ern­ment of inter­fer­ing with recruit­ment at the Euro­pean Court of Human Rights, par­tic­u­lar­ly in block­ing Kur­dish can­di­dates. The arti­cle begins:

A mem­ber of the main oppo­si­tion par­ty in the Turk­ish par­lia­ment has sub­mit­ted a writ­ten inquiry addressed to For­eign Min­is­ter Hakan Fidan alleg­ing gov­ern­ment inter­fer­ence in recruit­ment process­es at the Euro­pean Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Accord­ing to the MP, the Turk­ish gov­ern­ment has influ­enced hir­ing deci­sions through Turk­ish staff work­ing at the ECtHR, result­ing in the exclu­sion of a can­di­date deemed unsuit­able due to eth­nic back­ground. The inquiry sug­gests that polit­i­cal con­sid­er­a­tions, rather than pro­fes­sion­al qual­i­fi­ca­tions, led to the indi­vid­ual being over­looked for the posi­tion. In a writ­ten par­lia­men­tary inquiry sub­mit­ted on Octo­ber 11, Sez­gin Tan­rıku­lu, a mem­ber of the Repub­li­can People’s Par­ty (CHP), raised alle­ga­tions regard­ing poten­tial inter­fer­ence in hir­ing prac­tices at the ECtHR. Tan­rıku­lu claims that Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor Ümit Kılınç, a for­mer Kur­dish employ­ee at the Coun­cil of Europe, was over­looked for a posi­tion at the ECtHR despite hav­ing strong qual­i­fi­ca­tions. Kılınç was ranked sec­ond in the 2021 writ­ten exam for the posi­tion and was fourth on the wait­ing list after an oral exam­i­na­tion. How­ev­er, he was ulti­mate­ly not hired. Tan­rıku­lu fur­ther not­ed that the fifth and sixth can­di­dates on the list were hired for the depart­ment respon­si­ble for the exe­cu­tion of ECtHR rulings.

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Key Points:

1. Oppo­si­tion MP claims a qual­i­fied Kur­dish can­di­date was bypassed for the ECtHR posi­tion despite rank­ing high in exam­i­na­tions and interviews.
2. Turk­ish diplo­mat­ic mis­sions alleged­ly flag can­di­dates with Kur­dish con­nec­tions, influ­enc­ing their employ­ment prospects at inter­na­tion­al institutions.
3. Key Turk­ish offi­cials at ECtHR, includ­ing divi­sion head Hasan Bakır­cı, face accu­sa­tions of bias in cas­es against the Turk­ish government.
4. Turk­ish judge Saadet Yük­sel’s appoint­ment raised con­cerns about gov­ern­ment influ­ence, with some call­ing her a “Tro­jan horse.”