The 3^rd Annual Conference of the Balkan Constitutional Courts Forum
“Standardisation of Human Rights and the Role of Constitutional Justice”

Antalya
15 November 2025

Honourable President of the Court of Accounts,

Honourable Chief Public Prosecutor of the Court of Cassation,

Honourable Chief Public Prosecutor of the Council of State,

Honourable Judges of the European Court of Human Rights elected in respect of Türkiye, Azerbaijan and Liechtenstein,

Honourable Permanent Secretary-General of the Conference of Constitutional Jurisdictions of Africa,

Honourable Presidents and Judges of the Member and Observer Courts of the Balkan Constitutional Courts Forum,

Esteemed President of the Constitutional Court of Moldova,

Esteemed Judges of the Constitutional Court of Azerbaijan,

Esteemed President and Judge of the Supreme Court of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,

Esteemed Vice Presidents and Members of the Turkish Constitutional Court,

Distinguished Participants,

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Türkiye, I respectfully extend my heartfelt greetings and respects to you all. I am confident that the Conference convened under the auspices of the Balkan Constitutional Courts Forum will yield fruitful and lasting outcomes for us all.

I would like to express my heartfelt condolences for our heroic soldiers who tragically lost their lives in the crash of a military cargo aircraft near the Georgia–Azerbaijan border while en route from Azerbaijan to Türkiye. I extend my deepest sympathy to their grieving families, their fellow servicemen, and the esteemed Turkish nation.

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to the 3^rd Annual Conference of the Balkan Constitutional Courts Forum and the international symposium on “Standardisation of Human Rights and the Role of Constitutional Justice”.

I firmly believe that this forum, uniting the distinguished jurists of the constitutional courts across the Balkans, will serve to deepen the dialogue founded on our shared commitment to the rule of law and human rights. I further consider that the attendance of the guest and observer courts, alongside various institutions, greatly enhances the significance of our meeting. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to our distinguished guests for their kind participation and their generous spirit of cooperation. Their engagement and contributions will not only enrich the symposium but will also play a vital role in fostering the regional collaboration and dialogue.

Our convening in Antalya this year also holds symbolic meaning, as the city has, throughout its millennia-long history, been home to diverse civilisations, faiths, and cultures, standing as a remarkable example of harmonious co-existence in this fertile region of the Eastern Mediterranean. Likewise, the Balkans has long been a region where diverse peoples, languages, and faiths have co-existed, making it one of Europe’s most culturally rich areas.

In this sense, Antalya and the Balkans share a natural bond, as both represent enduring symbols of pluralism, a culture of co-existence, and mutual understanding. Our gathering here today is a contemporary embodiment of this shared legacy. This is because the protection of human rights is a reflection of, in modern law, the principle of unity within diversity. Human rights serve as a universal language, shaping the collective conscience of communities and fostering a common culture of life rooted in human dignity.

Today, we are gathered as representatives of the countries that share a common historical heritage, cultural affinity, and a similar understanding of the law, transcending geographical boundaries. The Balkans is a region enriched for centuries by the harmonious co-existence of various nations, religions, and cultures. What brings us together is our commitment to the rule of law, democracy, and human rights built upon this common history. The most fundamental safeguard for realising and protecting these ideals is constitutional justice. After World War II, constitutional justice assumed an important role in guaranteeing these values and maintaining the democratic order of the society, serving as a key guardian of democratic principles. The raison d’être of the constitutional justice, which is primarily tasked with reviewing constitutionality of legislative and executive acts, is to safeguard the fundamental values, principles, and provisions enshrined in the constitutions. Constitutional justice exists to achieve the shared goal of ensuring that both the people and the state act in accordance with justice.

In this context, the core function of constitutional justice can be described as protecting fundamental rights and freedoms, as well as ensuring the functionality of constitutions, which are referred to as social contracts and regulate the exercise of sovereign power in accordance with democratic principles. 

Furthermore, although constitutions and laws set out certain provisions aimed at safeguarding and upholding fundamental rights and freedoms, constitutional courts, as the body responsible for constitutionality review, play an undeniable role in this regard. Today, in most democratic countries, constitutional courts engage in reviewing the constitutionality of laws. Moreover, constitutional complaint or individual application, a remedy that allows individuals to directly lodge an application with constitutional courts in cases of alleged violations of their constitutional rights, has increasingly become an integral part of constitutional judicial practice. In this regard, constitutional courts bear a significant responsibility, not only in their role as bodies applying the law, but also as institutions that uphold social peace and the ideal of justice.

In the globalised world, constitutional justice is shaped not only by national laws but also by universal legal norms and international jurisprudence. Therefore, cooperation among constitutional courts and supreme judicial bodies of different countries plays a crucial role in strengthening the rule of law, enhancing the protection of individual rights, and promoting justice on a global scale.

In other words, cooperation among constitutional courts plays a key role today in fostering a legal culture that transcends national borders. That is because constitutional justice, albeit shaped by the historical and social circumstances of each country, fundamentally relies on shared values such as the rule of law and human dignity, as well as on the universality of fundamental rights. The protection and promotion of these common values rests with both national courts and constitutional jurisdictions engaged in dialogue at the regional and global levels. 

The Balkan Constitutional Courts Forum, which unites the constitutional courts of the Balkan countries, aims not only to facilitate the exchange of judicial experiences but also to foster a legal culture rooted in mutual understanding and shared principles.

The Forum provides a platform for dialogue, which regards the diversity of the Balkan region as a source of enrichment and harmonises different traditions around the shared principles of human rights, justice, and the rule of law.

It also serves as a contemporary reflection of the shared commitment to peace, justice, and the rule of law. That is because the protection of human rights is no longer solely a national concern, but increasingly guided by common standards at regional and international levels.

Accordingly, the Memorandum of Understanding for Establishment of the Balkan Constitutional Courts Forum was signed in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 27 October 2023, with the aim of establishing a permanent platform in the Balkans to foster cooperation in constitutional adjudication, to discuss current issues, and to share best practices, thereby promoting the protection of constitutional principles and the strengthening of democracy and human rights. Under this Memorandum of Understanding, the Constitutional Courts of Albania, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and the Republic Türkiye have become the founding members of the Forum. As is known, the Constitutional Court of Bulgaria serves as the Permanent Secretariat of the Forum. On this occasion, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Constitutional Court of Bulgaria for its outstanding work and effort. 

Distinguished Participants,

Türkiye is among the early members of the Council of Europe, having embraced universal principles and standards regarding the rule of law and fundamental rights and freedoms. Türkiye became a party to the European Convention on Human Rights in 1954, recognised the right to individual application before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 1987, and acknowledged the binding nature of the ECHR’s judgments in 1990. Subsequently, in 2004, the Turkish Constitution was amended to recognise the supremacy of international conventions on fundamental rights and freedoms, to which Türkiye is a party, notably the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Turkish Constitutional Court, in addition to its work within the domestic legal system, is actively engaged in related activities also on the international stage. Through its member and observer roles at various international platforms such as the World Conference on Constitutional Justice (WCCJ), the Conference of European Constitutional Courts (CECC), the Association of Asian Constitutional Courts and Equivalent Institutions (AACC), the Balkan Constitutional Courts Forum (BCCF), and the Conference of Constitutional Jurisdictions of Africa (CJCA), the Court has taken part in numerous initiatives as an active stakeholder in the international legal sphere.

Alongside these institutions that bring together members from diverse geographies and cultures around the world, the Court also exchanges its knowledge and experience with constitutional jurisdictions through international platforms where it serves as a founding member, such as the Conference of Constitutional Jurisdictions of the Islamic World (CCJ-I) and the Conference of Constitutional Jurisdictions of the Turkic World (TÜRK-AY). Furthermore, the Turkish Constitutional Court has concluded memoranda of understanding with the supreme courts of over thirty countries.

Guided by universal principles and standards on the rule of law and fundamental rights and freedoms, the Turkish Constitutional Court engages with the Forum of Balkan Constitutional Courts from this perspective.

Esteemed Participants,

The way to strengthen the constitutional ideals among the Balkan States sharing a common culture lies not only in possessing similar values and principles, but also in taking concrete steps through the institutions that uphold and promote these values. Cooperation in the field of constitutional justice among the Balkan countries can be further deepened through joint training programmes, expert exchanges, judicial dialogue meetings, and joint declarations. Deliberations on current challenges confronting constitutional courts and equivalent institutions from similar historical and legal perspectives will promote both a shared legal culture and stronger regional solidarity.

In this context, activities carried out under the auspices of the Balkan Constitutional Courts Forum, such as the exchange of decisions, joint academic initiatives, and summer schools, will help establish a lasting and effective dialogue among us. Thus, constitutional justice will play a crucial role in the effective protection and promotion of the rule of law and the ideals of human rights at both national and regional levels. 

Accordingly, the Balkan Constitutional Courts Forum will represent a significant milestone in fostering constitutional dialogue and promoting shared values among the Balkan countries. The new concrete steps to be taken in this regard will contribute not only to addressing constitutional challenges of common interest, but also to developing shared principles in pursuance of the rule of law, human rights, and the democratic standards. Thereby, a permanent regional platform for dialogue and solidarity in the field of constitutional justice will be established, giving rise to a model of constitutional cooperation specific to the Balkans, which is in full harmony with and contributes to the multilateral partnerships that exist within the European constitutional justice framework.

Distinguished Participants,

The protection of human rights is not only a responsibility entrusted to the judiciary, but also a pledge given to the shared conscience of humanity. In this regard, the steps we take together will help make the promotion of the rule of law and human rights a common pillar for the entire Balkan region.

With these considerations, I wish our meeting great success, expecting that it will inspire new perspectives in the fields of human rights and constitutional justice.

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude, for their kind presence and valuable contributions to the Conference, to the esteemed Presidents and judges of the Constitutional Courts of the Balkan countries; Prof. Dr. Saadet Yüksel, Distinguished Judge of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) elected in respect of Türkiye; Mr. Alain Chablais, Distinguished Judge of the ECHR elected in respect of Liechtenstein; Mr. Latif Huseynov, Distinguished Judge of the ECHR elected in respect of Azerbaijan; Mr. Bertan Özerdağ, Honourable President of the Supreme Court of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus; Mr. Moussa Laraba, Distinguished Permanent Secretary-General of the CJCA; the esteemed judges of the Constitutional Court of Azerbaijan; and Ms. Gresa Caka-Nimani former President of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo. I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to esteemed President of the Court of Accounts, Chief Public Prosecutor of the Court of Cassation, and Chief Public Prosecutor of the Council of State; the Governor of Antalya; the Presidents and Chief Public Prosecutors of the respective courts; as well as Mr. Niyazi Acar, esteemed Deputy Minister of Justice.

Please allow me to also convey my sincere thanks to the distinguished Vice Presidents, members, and rapporteur-judges of the Turkish Constitutional Court, as well as to the Secretariat General and administrative staff, for their devoted and diligent work in ensuring the smooth and successful conduct of this meeting.

Finally, I would like to express my profound respect and gratitude to Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Honourable President of the Republic of Türkiye, for his message to the Conference, graciously marking his support despite being unable to attend due to prior commitments.

I extend my heartfelt greetings and sincere respect to you all.