In November 2011, the ECHR unanimously concluded that Turkey had violated the right of freedom of conscience of Yunus Erçep, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses who was convicted and imprisoned for his conscientious objection to military service. Since March 1998, Brother Erçep has been called up for military duty 39 times and has been prosecuted over 30 times. Brother Erçep has been fined, imprisoned, and confined to a psychiatric hospital for “religious paranoia.”

In October 2004, Brother Erçep filed an application to the ECHR. In its judgment, the Court stated that “the applicant, as a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses, sought to be exempted from military service not for reasons of personal benefit or convenience but on the ground of his genuinely held religious convictions.”

Feti Demirtaş is another one of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Turkey who refused military training when he was called up in 2005. He was arrested, beaten, prosecuted, and imprisoned for 554 days until his release in June 2007. Because Brother Demirtaş would not compromise his Bible-based beliefs, a report was prepared to classify him as having a mental illness. In its judgment against Turkey, the ECHR found that Brother Demirtaş suffered inhumane treatment at the hands of Turkish authorities and that his right to freedom of conscience had been violated.

The above two ECHR decisions closely follow the landmark judgment of July 2011 (Bayatyan v. Armenia) in which the Grand Chamber of the ECHR confirmed that the European Convention protects the rights of conscientious objectors. These rulings are binding on all member states of the Council of Europe, including Turkey.