Former TRT Announcer Sırrı Er: “The Silent Cry of Justice and Law”

When those who should speak hesitate, the responsibility falls on the rest of us.

Stay silent. Leave those who fight injustice on their own. Then ask, “When will this lawlessness finally end?”

In my view, there is no meaningful difference between those who commit injustice and those who remain silent in the face of it.

“The world is a dangerous place not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”
— Albert Einstein

The 893 violation judgments announced by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) this week present a serious picture that deserves careful reflection from the perspective of the right to a fair trial.

The Court found violations in 893 applications submitted from Türkiye.

Of these:

• 264 cases involved violations of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which safeguards the right to a fair trial.
• 34 cases concerned violations of Article 7, which embodies the principle of “no punishment without law.”
• In 595 applications, the Court concluded that both Articles 6 and 7 had been violated.

What does this mean in practice?

Article 6 guarantees that every individual has the right to a fair hearing, access to the evidence relied upon against them, an effective opportunity to present a defense, and judicial decisions supported by adequate reasoning.

Article 7 protects one of the fundamental principles of the rule of law:

No one may be convicted or punished for conduct that was not defined as a criminal offense at the time it occurred.

Criminal law must be predictable, and its scope cannot be expanded retroactively.

These ECHR judgments indicate that concerns relating to the rule of law, fair trial guarantees, and the principle of legality are continuing to receive close scrutiny at the international judicial level.

Justice is the foundation of public trust in the state and in the legal system.

A society that stops demanding justice gradually loses both hope and confidence in its future.

In essence, the message can be summarized by a well-known principle from the Mecelle, the Ottoman civil code:

“The claimant bears the burden of proving the claim.
Whoever cannot prove the allegation becomes a slanderer.”

In other words:

Anyone making an accusation must be able to substantiate it with evidence.

Without proof, an allegation becomes nothing more than an unverified accusation.

To put the ECHR’s findings in plain language:

Without concrete and credible evidence, no one should be labeled, stigmatized, or deprived of their livelihood, family life, home, freedom, or fundamental rights simply by being branded as belonging to one group or another.

That is the core legal principle reflected in the Court’s violation judgments.

#ECHR

Muhataplar nazlanınca iş başa düştü. Sessiz kal, mücadele edeni yalnız bırak, sonra da "Bu hukuksuzluk ne zaman bitecek?" diye sor. Benim nazarımda sessiz kalanla haksızlık yapan arasında hiçbir fark yoktur.

"Dünya kötülük yapanlar yüzünden değil, seyirci kalıp hiçbir şey… pic.twitter.com/4gy5hTadCX

— Sırrı Er (@konusmasanati) June 25, 2026