The European Human Rights Court ruled for and against Turkey in two different cases. Turkish citizen, Sinan Isik, sued the Turkish state regarding the status of religion written in his Turkish identity card. Isik requested his religion to be written as “Alevi” rather than “Islam” on his identity card. Isik first took his case to a Turkish court which decided that ‘Alevism” was not a religion but a sect and so it could not be written on a Turkish identity card. Isik then decided to sue the Turkish state in the European Human Rights Court.
The European Human Rights Court ruled that a person did not have to state his belief and religion and if the status of religion were to be printed on the identity card, it should be written according to the wishes of the individual. The court ruled that the present case violated the freedom of religion and belief.
In another case, the Court evaluated the application of 8 Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin who complained that the Turkish state refused to use the letters of Q, W and X which were present in their names but were not printed in their Turkish identity cards. The Turkish state uses the equivalent of the letters in the Turkish alphabet. The European Human Rights Court decided for Turkey and ruled against the requests in using letters that were not present in the Turkish alphabet.
Source: ntvmsnbc, cnnturk (Turkey), February 2, 2010
