Good faith, bad faith, and the limits of enforcement. Türkiye’s strategic resistance before the ECtHR under article 18

Abstract

The European Court of Human Rights found Türkiye in violation of Article 18 in Demirtaş (no. 2), Kavala, and Yüksekdağ Şenoğlu for politically motivated detentions. Despite these rulings, the applicants remain imprisoned. This thesis examines how Türkiye has exploited the Committee of Ministers’ supervision system through formal compliance and strategic evasion. It argues that the Council of Europe’s enforcement tools fail when faced with bad-faith resistance by authoritarian-leaning states.