Turkey’s president picks a fight with the Council of Europe

FOR 73 YEARSECHRECHR Turkey has been a member of the Council of Europe, the organisation established in 1949, long before there was a European Union, to protect fundamental human rights on European soil in the wake of the second world war. Recent developments suggest it may not be a member for much longer.Council members agree to abide by the European Convention on Human Rights and to accept the jurisdiction of its Strasbourg-based court, the European Court of Human Rights (). Last week the court concluded that the conviction of Yuksel Yalcinkaya, an alleged plotter in an attempted coup in 2016, who was sentenced to six years in jail, had been “decisively” based on his use of a messaging app called Bylock. This, it said, constituted “systemic violations” of the right to a fair trial.Around 8,500 other people have lodged similar complaints with the court against their convictions, and up to 100,000 have been identified as Bylock users, and therefore potential coup-plotters, by the Turkish authorities. The ordered Turkey to take measures to rectify the violations.