Special measures for processing large influx of applications against Türkiye concerning dismissal of civil servants

Since mid-October 2025, the European Court of Human Rights has received a substantial number of applications against Türkiye concerning the dismissal of civil servants, members of the judiciary, military officials and other public officials, on account of their alleged belonging to structures posing a threat to national security or of their affiliation or links with such structures, notably the organisation described by the Turkish authorities as the ‘Fetullahist Terror Organisation/Parallel State Structure’ (Fetullahçı Terör Örgütü / Paralel Devlet Yapılanması – ‘the FETÖ/PDY’). These dismissals, carried out in the aftermath of the attempted coup d’état of 15 July 2016, have given rise to proceedings before the domestic administrative courts and the Constitutional Court of Türkiye, which has already delivered a number of leading judgments on the matter¹. The recent influx of applications before the European Court follows from the outcome of those domestic proceedings.

Given the very large number of former civil servants and other public officials affected by these measures, the Court anticipates that it will be faced with a massive influx of applications raising essentially identical or similar issues under the Convention. From an administrative perspective, such a large number of applications cannot be processed in the normal manner, without compromising the Court’s ability to fulfil its mandate under Article 19 of the Convention and to maintain the effectiveness of the right of individual application under Article 34. In such circumstances, it is necessary to adopt special measures to manage and streamline the processing of these applications from the moment of their arrival.

¹ The judgments delivered on 29 May 2025 by the Plenary of the Constitutional Court in the cases of N.E. (application no. 2022/62466) and A.S. (application no. 2023/30928); and the judgment in the case of Erkan Sezgin (application no. 2022/86339) dated 16 July 2025.

The President of the Court has therefore decided, in the exercise of his competence to direct the work and the administration of the Court under Rule 9 of the Rules of Court, that the Court’s Registry should put in place special measures to ensure efficient administrative processing of this group of applications falling within the category of dismissal cases, in the interests of the proper administration of justice². Applicants intending to submit applications to the Court regarding their dismissal from the civil service in the aftermath of the attempted coup are therefore requested to comply with the following requirements:

1. Applications submitted to the Court must be accompanied by a cover page, available at https://www.echr.coe.int/web/echr/coverpage-eng, which may be accessed from the ‘Applications – Applicants – other languages – Turkish’ tab on the Court’s website. This cover page is an essential administrative document that will facilitate the identification, registration, and proper handling of applications; it will not replace the Court’s official application form and will not be used for the legal assessment of the complaints. It is imperative that all fields in the cover page are filled in electronically and that, once completed, the cover page is printed. The printed cover page, which will bear a unique QR code specific to each applicant, must be placed in front of the application form submitted to the Court.

   The questions on the cover page have been developed in the light of the common features observed in similar applications received to date, with a view to ensuring a more structured application process. Applicants are expected to respond to the questions accurately and truthfully.

   Applicants are advised to ensure that they are using the latest version of the cover page provided in the above link, as that document may be updated from time to time in the light of the Registry’s administrative needs and the developments at the domestic level.

2. Moreover, applicants must continue to use the official application form available on the Court’s website. The application form downloaded from the Court’s website³, which contains a unique barcode that facilitates the entry of an applicant’s details directly into the Court’s database, must be filled in electronically. The completed form must then be saved and printed for submission to the Court. The applicant’s complaints will be assessed exclusively on the basis of the contents of this form, which should comply with the requirements of Rule 47 of the Rules of Court. Non-compliance with Rule 47 of the Rules of Court in regard to the filling of the application form may lead to the applications not being examined by the Court.

3. Both the application form and the cover page must be completed and printed for each applicant separately, including where a representative lodges applications on behalf of multiple applicants.

Applicants are informed that failure to comply with these instructions – in particular, failure to submit the cover page – will necessarily and inevitably cause significant delays in the processing of the application.

² See also the Practice Direction on Processing of Applications in the Event of a Mass Influx (issued by the President of the Court in accordance with Rule 32 of the Rules of Court on 25 August 2022) for special measures that may be resorted to following the receipt of a large number of applications.

³ Instructions on how to download the application form are available on the Court’s website at http://www.echr.coe.int/applicants.

Correspondence with applicants, including as regards the registration of their applications, will, in principle, be carried out by using the Court’s Electronic Communications Service (eComms). Applicants will not receive a paper copy of the registration letter. It is, therefore, imperative that an email address – belonging to the applicant or, if they are represented, to their representative – be provided in the application form, unless the applicant is unable to comply with this requirement due to justified constraints which should be clearly stated in the application form. The provision of an email address in the application form, whether belonging to the applicant or to their representative, will be considered as an agreement to use the eComms system⁴.

As a rule, the Court will not respond to enquiries relating to individual applications in this category of dismissal cases. Instead, the Court will communicate information concerning the further processing of these applications via press releases.

⁴ Applicants or their representatives may consult the manual on how to use the Ecomms by visiting the following link: https://www.echr.coe.int/documents/d/echr/eComms_User_Manual_for_Representatives

These measures shall apply to all applications against Türkiye concerning the dismissal of civil servants, members of the judiciary, military officials and other public officials lodged with the Court on or after 1 January 2026, and applicants are required to comply with them in full from that date onwards.

Applicants who submitted an application before the entry into force of these measures may, if necessary, be contacted by the Registry and asked to supplement their application with the cover page.