Osman Kavala v Turkey: Unravelling the Matryoshka Dolls

Abstract

Osman Kavala v Turkey is emblematic of many existing and structural problems in Turkey. While each issue deserves close attention in its own right, they are also inextricably intertwined. Each issue is either a result or a cause of one another – factors that cumulatively contributed to the judicial farce and injustice that Kavala faced domestically. So one cannot help but think about the Matryoshka dolls when looking at the oddities of the particular case on one hand, and different layers of human rights challenges underlying it on the other. This case focuses in on the ECtHR’s substantive findings in the judgment, and sees whether the Court went further into the unraveling of the Matryoshka dolls in Turkey. It also explores the newly appointed Turkish Judge Yüksel’s dissenting opinion, which clearly challenges the gist of the majority’s significant findings in the judgment.

Keywords: ECHR, Article 18, State of Emergency, Gezi Park, Attempted Coup, Turkey