Foreign Ministry denies council of Europe convened over Turkey

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has denied news reports suggesting that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe convened on March 5 to review what decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) Turkey has not complied with. A statement released by the Foreign Ministry noted that, according to Article 46 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the Committee of Ministers, the Council of Europe's decision-making body, is tasked with the supervision of ECtHR rulings. It says the committee raises the issue of supervision of ECtHR decisions as they relate to the 47 EC members in meetings regarding human rights four times a year. As part of this, the Foreign Ministry noted in the statement, the meeting scheduled to start on March 5-6 will be about checking ECtHR decisions pertaining to the members of the Council of Europe to see how many of the rulings are being implemented by the member countries. The Foreign Ministry underlined that the committee is not convening with a special topic on Turkey to see to what extent Ankara is implementing ECtHR decisions. The statement noted that the meeting of the committee will review the compliance of all member countries with ECtHR decisions and takes place periodically every year.