SECOND SECTION

DECISION

Application s no s . 18578/19 and 54063/19 Ruhani BÃœYÃœKMERT against Turkey and Serkan MARAÅžLI against Turkey

(s ee appended table)

The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting on 1 1 March 2021 as a Committee composed of:

Branko Lubarda, President, Carlo Ranzoni, Pauliine Koskelo, judges,

and Liv Tigerstedt, Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application s lodged on the various dates indicated in the appended table,

Having regard to the formal declaration s accepting a friendly settlement of the case s ,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

The list of applicant s is set out in the appended table.

The applicants were represented by Mr Ç. Cavit , a lawyer practising in Ankara.

The applicants ’ complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention concerning the independence and impartiality of the Supreme Military Administrative Court were communicated to the Turkish Government (“the Government”) .

The Court received the friendly-settlement declarations , signed by the parties, under which the applicant s agreed to waive any further claims against Turkey in respect of the facts giving rise to these applications, subject to an undertaking by the Government to pay them the amounts detailed in the appended table. These amounts will be converted into the currency of the respondent State at the rate applicable on the date of payment and will be payable within three months from the date of notification of the Court ’ s decision. In the event of failure to pay these amounts within the above-mentioned three-month period, the Government undertake to pay simple interest on them, from the expiry of that period until settlement, at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points.

The payment will constitute the final resolution of the cases.

THE LAW

Having regard to the similar subject matter of the applications, the Court finds it appropriate to examine them jointly in a single decision .

The Court takes note of the friendly settlement reached between the parties. It is satisfied that the settlement is based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and the Protocols thereto and finds no reasons to justify a continued examination of the applications.

The Court would like to draw attention to the fact that on 31 July 2018 the Turkish Law No. 7145 entered into force. Articles 4, 17, 18 and 19 of this new law provide for a right to request the reopening of domestic court proceedings or the investigation following the Court ’ s decision to strike out a case on the basis of a friendly settlement or unilateral declaration. According to the Court ’ s case‑law and practice, the reopening of the domestic proceedings is the most appropriate way to provide an effective solution to an alleged breach. In this connection, bearing in mind the Court ’ s subsidiary role in protecting the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Convention and its protocols, it is recalled that it falls in the first place to the national authorities to redress any violation of the Convention.

The Court further notes that the Supreme Military Administrative Court is abolished as of 16 April 2017 (see Baysal v. Turkey ( dec. ), no. 29698/11, 22 May 2018) and a request may be made before the Ankara Administrative Court for the reopening of the impugned proceedings.

In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the case s out of the list.

For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,

Decides to join the applications;

Decides to strike the applications out of its list of cases in accordance with Article 39 of the Convention .

Done in English and notified in writing on 1 April 2021 .

Liv Tigerstedt Branko Lubarda Deputy Registrar President

APPENDIX

List of applications raising complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention

( i ndependent and impartial tribunal)

No.

Application no. Date of introduction

Applicant ’ s name

Year of birth

Date of receipt of Government ’ s declaration

Date of receipt of Applicant ’ s declaration

Amount awarded for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage and costs and expenses

per applicant

(in euros) [1]

18578/19

25/03/2019

Ruhani BÃœYÃœKMERT

1993

11/03/2020

03/02/2020

1,500

54063/19

11/10/2019

Serkan MARAÅžLI

1984

11/03/2020

03/02/2020

1,500

[1] Plus any tax that may be chargeable to the applicants.