Turkey arrests youth delegate over Council of Europe address: What to know
The youth activist’s arrest adds to Ankara’s growing isolation as Turkey faces suspension from Europe’s top human rights body.
ANKARA — Enes Hocaogullari, a youth activist from Turkey, was arrested in Ankara late on Tuesday over a speech he made in Strasbourg criticizing the jailing of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and the police crackdown that followed, drawing sharp condemnation from the Council of Europe.
What happened: An Ankara court jailed Hocaogullari, 23, upon his return to Turkey on Tuesday night, charging him with publicly disseminating misleading information in connection to a speech he gave at the Council of Europe’s headquarters in Strasbourg in March, Turkey’s independent news outlet T24 and other outlets reported.
The Council of Europe, the top human rights watchdog on the continent, is a pan-European body of 46 member countries party to the European Convention on Human Rights, overseeing enforcement of European Court of Human Rights rulings through its Committee of Ministers.
Hocaogullari, an LGBTQ+ activist, was selected as Turkey’s youth delegate by the body in early 2025 and represented his country during the March session.
