In a hour-long talk, Kurban discussed with Ahval news site the case of Taybet Inan, an elderly Kurdish woman who in 2015 was killed by artillery fire from a Turkish armoured vehicle in Silopi, Sirnak, a border town in the southeast, which has been of key importance for Turkey’s Kurds.
The pair also touched on whether Turkey’s attitude towards its Kurdish minority and the gross human rights violations recorded in the last four decades in particular could have been handled differently – or better – by European institutions.
Why the institutions failed to “do better”, and how the European landscape has shifted for human rights defenders and legal practitioners in the country are also covered.
Kurban maintains that early work by Kurdish lawyers at the ECHR was key in shaping case law, and many precedents regarding torture and mistreatment were set by cases litigated by them, however, they haven’t been as connected in the European legal community as they could have been.
“There is a need for some sort of soul searching,” Kurban says, speaking on Kurdish human rights lawyers, who in the early 2000s miraculously managed to litigate several landmark cases with few resources, a lack of knowledge in how the ECHR worked, or even European languages for the most part.
“What could have been done better? This means changing a little bit. They need to be much more internationally oriented, and seek help, do more (in Europe),” she says.
“We need to take ECHR seriously, but also be cognisant of its limitations – and also, lack of willingness, really. And to recognise that really, at this point, what matters is politics and political pressure,” Kurban adds.
Kurban urges human rights defenders to focus on impacting public opinion in Europe, and utilise the power of the peoples of Europe to in turn influence their governments’ attitudes towards Turkey.
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