Euro court replaces EU as Turkey's main anchor to the union

Turkey?s human rights record has never been a bright one. Especially in the 1980?s and 1990?s when Turkey entered a spiral of violence due to the Kurdish issue, human rights violations became a major and shameful headache for Turks.

Over the course of the last two decades important progress has been registered in certain areas. A case in point is torture and mistreatment. The rulings of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) have played an important role in healing this bleeding wound. The ECHR ruled one after the other against Turkey, sentencing the government to huge compensation fines. While cases might last years in the Strasbourg-based court, the ECHR started to take its decisions automatically without wasting time based on the conviction that Turkish authorities were not conducting effective investigations (especially due to the fact that their superiors never gave the authorization to investigate police officers accused of torture or mistreatment).

As the fines started to snowball, changes were made in the Turkish penal code and detention periods were lowered to European norms.

The government had to act, as it was not sufficient to pay the fine and go on with old practices; member countries who have accepted the jurisdiction of the Euro court are asked to take the necessary measures so that new violations do not take place. But the Council of Europe lacks the leverage to force its member states to take the necessary measures in a timely manner, which delays the improvement process.

In the case of Turkey, the leverage came in the form of accession to the European Union. Eager to start accession talks, Ankara started to make legal amendments known as the famous ?adoption packages.? Yet changing the law was not sufficient;...