Every year on May 23, MEDEL marks the Alert Day for the Independence of Justice, to pay tribute to the memory of judges Giovanni Falcone, Francesca Morvillo and Paolo Borsellino, killed together with their security details in devastating Mafia attacks. On this day, MEDEL honours all those who fight, even at the cost of their life or personal freedom, to uphold Justice. One of the brightest examples is that of Murat Arslan, president of Yarsav and 2017 CoE’s Vaclav Havel Prize laureate, unjustly arrested in 2016, sentenced to 10 years in prison following a sham trial and still detained for his unwavering commitment to human rights and the Rule of law. Today MEDEL sounds the alarm since these values are increasingly under threat and the entire human rights system established in the wake of the tragedies of World War II risks being swept away. We observe political leaders pursuing dominance through the illegal use of force, war crimes and violence on a massive scale; the International Criminal Court becoming the target of systematic attacks and undermined by the failure of States Parties to fulfil their obligations; European governments calling into question the universality and indivisibility of the human rights enshrined in the Convention and the legal and judicial system designed to protect them at the highest level; political and institutional pressure addressed at the national level against judges, prosecutors and lawyers, as well as threats to their independence. All this as part of a global attack on the legal profession and of an authoritarian drift challenging rights and freedoms. Against this backdrop, MEDEL calls on: the international community to take all necessary steps to safeguard the international order based on the Rule of law, and the international justice system designed to protect fundamental rights. European States to act in accordance with their declared unwavering commitment to the Convention system as a mechanism to promote Europe’s core values of human rights, democracy and the Rule of law, and rejection of attacks at high political levels on the rights protected by the Convention and the ECtHR ’s judgments seeking to safeguard them (Reykjavík Declaration, 2023). Νational authorities to respect the principle of the separation of powers, the independence of the judiciary and that of individual judges, prosecutors and lawyers. MEDEL urges the European institutions to take all necessary steps so that Murat Arslan and all those unjustly detained in Turkey are finally given back their freedom and Rule of law and independent justice are restored.

May 22, 2026

which is composed of the four
European judges associations
Association of European Administrative Judges (AEAJ)
European Association of Judges (EAJ)
Judges for Judges
Magistrats Européens pour la Démocratie et les Libertés (MEDEL)
CONSIDERING that Turkey had suffered a terrible attack against its democratic institutions on
15.7.2016 which killed almost three hundreds of its people and left much more seriously wounded,
an event which has to be strongly condemned
UNDERLINING that those whose involvement in this coup d’état have been proved should be hold
accountable
WELCOMING the fact that all political parties and the Turkish people have delivered a strong
statement for democracy
REMINDING that a basic pillar of democracy is the rule of law and a commitment to the safeguarding
of human rights, enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights (EHCR), to which Turkey is a
party,
AFFIRMING the fact that every emergency law and likewise the suspension of the European
Convention of Human Rights according to Article 15 have their limits regarding the extent of the
measures in so far as all restrictions have to be kept as narrow as it is absolutely necessary due to
the extraordinary situation
STRONGLY INSISTING that fundamental procedural principles have to be followed even in
extraordinary circumstances like the right to access to a lawyer, like the necessity that there is at
least a concrete suspicion of an involvement in a crime etc.
HINTING AT the universal accepted fundamental principle that even those who have committed a
crime have an indispensible right of a fair trial
Notices that
Ø thousands of judges and prosecutors have been arrested and dismissed without an adequate
procedure,
Ø their property has been seized
Ø that very often the evidence to be member of a terroristic organisation seems to be very
weak and that the Turkish law regarding terroristic organisation is much too far-reaching
with international standards and therefore often criticised by the international institutions
Ø that there are many claims about the situation in the detention centres which include
assertions of torture
appeals to the Turkish authorities:
Ø to end the state of emergency and re-establish the procedural guarantees of a fair trial and
immediately stop all non-derogable rights violations as provided in Article 15 of the European
Convention on Human Rights and any measures derogating disproportionately to the obligations of
the Convention
Ø to adopt the legislation on fighting terrorism to international standards
Ø to respect the independence of the judiciary and stop influencing courts and especially the
High Council of Judges and Prosecutors
Ø restore the property of judges and prosecutors and their families , which was seized under
the emergency decree
Ø guarantee that the European Prison Rules (CM Rec(2006)2 ) are obeyed in all detention
centres and to held accountable those who have violated them
Ø annul the dissolution of the only independent judges association YARSAV
urges all European authorities in particular all bodies of the Council of Europe and the European
Union
Ø to convince and to support Turkey in fulfilling the claims, which were enumerated above
Ø to requests Turkey to meet its obligation under Article 15 para 3 of the ECHR
Ø to remind the Turkish government to follow its obligation under the Turkish constitution
Ø to establish a commission of independent experts to examine the current situation in Turkey
regarding fundamental rights and esepcially if the measures taken by the emergency decree
follow the principle of proportionality, which is an underlying element of Article 15 of the
ECHR, a commission in which the platform is prepared to participate
Ø to entrust observers to follow the criminal procedures against Turkish judges and
prosecutors
Ø to ask the European Committee for Prevention of Torture to examine every individual
assertion of torture and the circumstances of every suicide of judges and prosecutors in the
detention , especially the reported death of Seyfettin Yigit, who was found hanged on
September, 16h.

The Hellenic Association of Magistrates for Democracy and Freedoms, a member of MEDEL – Magistrats Européens pour la démocratie et les libertés (European Judicial Officers for Democracy and Freedoms), – is participating in the global anxiety for the containment of the fundamental rights in Turkey, the aftermath of the failed coup.
It is very worrying that in addition to the tens of thousands of other public officials, 2745 Turkish magistrates were immediately suspended and about two hundred of them have been arrested.
We underline that the presumption of innocence and transparency are safeguards for a fair trial. The attacks on the independence of justice and intimidation of judges with cleansing operations erode the rule of law and the separation of functions and weaken democracy. We call, therefore, on the Turkish authorities to liberate and restore the magistrates who are sacked or detained in their posts, until suspicions against them are investigated and proven credible. Any procedure against them should be in line with international law and, indeed, with the principles of a fair trial of the Council of Europe.
We stress that human rights cannot be abolished in the name of security. We call, therefore, the Turkish Government, in these critical times, to respect fundamental human rights, upholding the rule of law and to strengthen democratic institutions.
Finally, we urge the United Nations, NATO, the European Union and the national governments of the Member States, the Council of Europe and all other humanitarian organizations to assume their share of responsibility and claim to defend these principles, to support Turkish colleagues.

Athens 21 July 2016
The Board

MEDEL urges all the European institutions to condemn in the strongest terms the brutal attack of the Turkish authorities to the independence of the judiciary in the country.
MEDEL calls for the immediate release of the thousands of judges and prosecutors who were arbitrarily deposed from the bench and arrested without the respect of any basic principle of Rule of law, just few hours after the attempt of coup d’Etat in this country was declared to be suppressed.
Purging a quarter of the judges and prosecutors in matters of hours, and arresting many of them, are actions specific to totalitarian regimes, not to a democracy. This action against judges and prosecutors comes after the Turkish government dismantled the free media and civil society in the country.
It is hard to believe that judges and prosecutors who were only fulfilling their duties could be implicated in a still to explain coup and that the list of nearly 3000 names was elaborated in only a few hours.
In the last years MEDEL raised in its reports numerous concerns about the decline of democracy in Turkey. All those warnings sent to the European institutions were ignored, and the environment for arbitrary actions against Turkish judiciary and for the dismantling of the independence of the judiciary has been created.
All the European leaders have claimed the support for the democratically elected government in Turkey. However, democratic governments have to respect the Rule of law and the human rights of every person.
-2-
The European institutions cannot remain silent anymore to the gross violations of democratic rules in Turkey and must take action when the judiciary, the guarantor of the Rule of law, is attacked in such a brutal and arbitrary way. Independence of the judiciary, human rights and freedoms, democracy and
The special situation in Turkey does not justify the purge and arbitrary arrest of thousands of magistrates. Security cannot be built neither on brutal violation of fundamental rights, nor on dismantling the independence of the judiciary, nor on the silence of the international democratic institutions witnessing such deviations from democracy. No democracy and no Rule of law can exist in a country without an independent judiciary.
MEDEL expresses full solidarity with the judges and prosecutors in Turkey who defend the values of democracy, Rule of law, fundamental rights and liberty of every citizen, and will take all the necessary actions to make sure detained magistrates are released and safely back to their families.
MEDEL calls on every judge and prosecutor to demand their governments to condemn the actual coup against the judiciary and democracy in Turkey.
MEDEL restates the call to all the European institutions to strongly condemn the brutal attack of the Turkish government to the independence of the judiciary and to demand Turkish authorities to release immediately all the magistrates who are arbitrarily deposed from the bench and arrested without the respect of any basic principle of Rule of Law.
18 July 2016