Conscientious Objection in Türkiye: The Limits of ECtHR’s Influence
by Ahmet Said Aydil
Question(s) at stake
Whether the applicant’s repeated convictions for refusing military service on conscientious grounds, and the treatment to which he was subjected, constituted a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Outcome of the ruling
The applicant, a conscientious objector, faced repeated convictions and continued prosecution for refusing to perform compulsory military service on the basis of his beliefs, resulting in multiple periods of imprisonment and an ongoing risk of further prosecution. The Court considered that the cumulative effects of these measures placed the applicant in a situation of ongoing uncertainty and vulnerability, amounting to degrading treatment in violation of Article 3 of the Convention.
Country:
Official citation
Ülke v. Turkey, App. no. 39437/98, 24 January 2006
Topic(s)
Keywords:
Military service Freedom of thought, conscience and religion Prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment Types and actors Public sector Armed Forces
Tag(s):
Bibliographic information
Access case report
View case report in the CUREDI databaseAbout the authors
Ahmet Said Aydil (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Department Law and Anthropology, Germany)
Ahmet Said Aydil is a PhD Candidate in the Law and Anthropology Department at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Bilkent University (Ankara, Turkiye). Following his graduation, he completed his legal internship, working in areas such as commercial law, international arbitration law, criminal law, and administrative law. In 2020 he passed the Turkish Bar and became a licensed attorney.
Aydil also holds an LLM from the Europa Institute, Saarland University, in International and European Human Rights Protection Law and European Economic Law. Under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Thomas Giegrich, his master’s thesis analysed the decline in human rights commitmens in Europe, driven by the rise of populist politics and the mishandling of the refugee influx of 2015, and evaluated potential remedies at the European Union and Council of Europe levels. His current research falls within the framework of the database project “Cultural and Religious Diversity under State Law across Europe” (CUREDI) at the MPI.