A Turkish asylum seeker and pushback victim has won a legal battle against the Greek government after taking her case to the European Court of Human Rights.
The landmark victory announced Tuesday concerns Ayşe Erdoğan, a 34-year-old maths graduate, who was 'pushed back' to Turkey from Greece in 2019. There she faced persecution and imprisonment over alleged links to the Gülen movement, which Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, holds responsible for a coup attempt in 2016. This event triggered a mass crackdown of dissidents in the country that continues to this day.
The ECtHR, which first heard the case in June 2024, condemned Athens for the young woman’s illegal detention and subsequent pushback; for failing to conduct an effective criminal investigation; and for archiving her criminal complaint despite there being enough evidence to warrant further investigation.
