The head of a top European rights watchdog on Friday expressed alarm over the duration and magnitude of the state of emergency imposed in Turkey after the 2016 failed coup. Council of Europe chief Thorbjorn Jagland said the arrests of journalists, MPs and activists under the emergency had been “chilling” for Turkish society. “Many of us are concerned today by the length and scope of the ongoing state of emergency,” Jagland said in the speech on the premises of the Constitutional Court. Jagland said that the situation had resulted in a backlog of cases at the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), adding all cases had to be dealt with in line with the European Convention on Human Rights. The ECHR, which enforces the European Convention on Human Rights, is a body of the Council of Europe, of which Turkey has been a member since 1950.

Source: Dhaka Tribune February 16, 2018 08:37 UTC