Individual Application

The Facts

Upon the letter of the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Cassation, the relevant district governorships and provincial governorships brought an action before magistrate’s courts (in civil matters) requesting for the determination of the ipso facto dissolution of the organisations of the applicant party on the grounds that the different provincial and district organisations had failed to hold their congresses twice in a row within the prescribed period. Having accepted the actions, the incumbent magistrate’s courts (in civil matters) ruled that the relevant provincial or district organisations of the political party in question had been ipso facto dissolved. The applicant’s appeal requests against the impugned judgments were dismissed by the regional courts of appeal with final effect.

The Applicant’s Allegations

The applicant, a political party, claimed that its freedom of political organisation had been violated due to the decision ruling that the relevant organisations of the party had been ipso facto dissolved due to their failure to hold provincial and district congresses within the prescribed period.

The Court’s Assessment

The Constitutional Court has previously examined a request for the determination of the ipso facto dissolution of a political party and for the consequent termination of its legal existence. In this decision, the Constitutional Court indicated that Code no. 6216 on the Establishment and Rules of Procedure of the Constitutional Court had vested the Constitution Court with the jurisdiction to rule on the requests for the determination of the dissolution status of political parties and that the parties concerned are required to lodge an application to the Constitutional Court for the execution of this request. Article 87 of the Turkish Civil Code no. 4721 stipulates that the relevant parties referred to in the text are the legal representatives of political parties bearing legal and financial responsibility and the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Cassation, which has the authority to initiate proceedings for the dissolution of political parties and maintaining their registration files (see the Court’s judgment no. E.2015/2 (Miscellaneous), K.2016/4, §10).

Additionally, having assessed the applications filed by certain district governorships with the Constitutional Court requesting the determination of the ipso facto dissolution of provincial and district organisations of political parties, the Constitutional Court held in these applications that district governorates had not been granted authorisation to request the determination of the dissolution of the provincial and district organisations of political parties and, accordingly, the termination of their legal existence.

In summary, the relevant parties referred to in Article 87 of Law no. 4721 are the legal representatives of political parties with legal and financial responsibility and the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Cassation. The Constitutional Court is exclusively entrusted with the authority to determine the dissolution of the entire legal entity of a political party upon the requests of these parties.

In the present application, it has been observed that upon the letter of the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office at the Court of Cassation, the district governorships and provincial governorships applied to the magistrate’s courts (in civil matters) to determine ipso facto dissolution of the provincial and district organisations of the applicant party and that accordingly the incumbent magistrate’s courts (in civil matters) adjudicated on these requests. It has been understood that the public authorities delivered a judgment without taking into account of Article 3 of Law no. 2820, which stipulates that the legal entities of political parties shall be considered as a whole together with their organisations, and the phrase “any concerned person” in Article 87 of Law no. 4721, which does not include district governorships and governorships. In this respect, it has been concluded that the aforementioned provisions were interpreted in a broad and unforeseeable manner, exceeding their purpose. In the light of these considerations, it has been concluded that the decisions on the determination the ipso facto dissolution in the present application failed to meet the criteria of lawfulness.

Consequently, the Court has found a violation of the freedom of political organisation.