An application to Strasbourg is often treated as a fallback: it did not work at home, so we go to the ECHR. In reality this is a separate procedure with its own deadlines and its own logic, and starting to look into it after the last domestic refusal is almost always too late.

What an ECHR judgment actually gives you

A successful case brings three things. Compensation — the part of a judgment that is executed most reliably. A ground for reopening the case inside Türkiye — in both criminal and administrative proceedings; the request must be made within one year of the judgment becoming final. And a legal position you can rely on in other cases, including those of family members.

What it does not give: automatic annulment of the Turkish authority's act, automatic release, automatic return of property. It gives a ground; the rest is separate work inside the country. Nor does a pending application suspend domestic proceedings.

Four months, not six

Since 1 February 2022 an application must be lodged within four months of the final domestic decision. The former six-month limit survives only where that decision was given before this date — the change is not retroactive.

The deadline is strict and in practice is not restored. It is the first thing checked, and the first thing lost by those who come late. Only the official application form is accepted; a free-form letter does not stop time running.

Before Strasbourg — the Constitutional Court

Individual application to the Turkish Constitutional Court has existed since 2012, and the ECHR treats it as an effective domestic remedy. Going through it is therefore mandatory: skip it and the application is declared inadmissible without any examination of the merits.

For some categories there is one more mandatory address — the Compensation Commission at the Ministry of Justice. Complaints about excessive length of proceedings and about non-enforcement of judgments go through it. Bypassing it in those categories almost certainly ends in inadmissibility.

Interim measures: Rule 39

Where there is an imminent risk of irreparable harm — above all removal or extradition to a country where treatment prohibited by the Convention is alleged — the Court may indicate that the state refrain from acting for the time being.

This is an exceptional mechanism. It is applied rarely, on a rigorous assessment of all the circumstances, and it requires the complete file at once: such requests jump the queue, but they have to be prepared in advance. In extradition and removal cases, where domestic deadlines run in days, an interim measure is sometimes the only thing that arrives in time. Asking for one «just in case», without a demonstrated imminent risk, is pointless.

Türkiye in figures: what to expect realistically

• As of 1 July 2026 there are 22,566 applications pending against Türkiye — more than a third of the Court's entire docket.
• In 2025 the Court disposed of 9,865 Turkish applications, and roughly two thirds of them were inadmissibility decisions or strike-outs.
• There were 74 judgments on the merits in 2025, and a violation was found in 66 of them — almost nine cases out of ten.
• 20,446 of the 22,566 pending cases sit with three-judge committees: routine cases decided on settled case-law.

The conclusion is simple: reaching an examination on the merits is hard, winning once you get there is likely. The fight is over admissibility, not over the outcome.

The steadiest category is liberty and security of person — between 16 and 29 judgments a year throughout the decade. On freedom of expression the 2018–2021 peak, with up to 40 judgments a year, has given way to single figures: the cases have not disappeared, they have settled into the queue.

How to apply: six steps

1. Exhaust the ordinary remedies — appeal and cassation in your branch of proceedings.
2. Lodge an individual application with the Constitutional Court and wait for its decision.
3. Check whether your situation falls within the remit of the Compensation Commission.
4. Fix the date of the final domestic decision — the four months run from it.
5. Prepare the application on the official form: facts, rights invoked, remedies used, documents.
6. If the risk is imminent, ask for an interim measure under Rule 39 at the same time, by a separate request.

There is a seventh step, the one most often forgotten: having won, request the reopening of the case inside Türkiye — one year is allowed for that.

What people lose most often

• Counting the deadline under the old six-month rule and arriving late.
• Going to Strasbourg while skipping the Constitutional Court — and receiving an inadmissibility decision.
• Missing the one-year window for reopening: the judgment exists, but can no longer be used.
• Refusing a friendly settlement or a unilateral declaration as if it were a defeat. For reopening inside the country the effect is the same, and the payment arrives sooner.

This material is for general information and is not a legal assessment of any particular situation. Deadlines and procedure in an individual case depend on its circumstances and on which domestic remedy was used.