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UNCLAS ISTANBUL 000040 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY'S FIRST FEMALE JUDGE ON THE EUROPEAN COURT 
OF HUMAN RIGHTS: PROFESSOR ISIL KARAKAS 
 
 
¶1. (U) The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly appointed 
Professor Isil Karakas as the new Turkish judge on the 
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on January 22.  With 
this appointment, Karakas became the first, female Turkish 
jurist to be given a European appointment.  According to the 
European Convention on Human Rights, each contracting country 
proposes three names to the Assembly, and the Assembly 
appoints one of the three.  Prof. Karakas received 136 of 178 
total votes in the Assembly, winning by a large margin ahead 
of the other two Turkish candidates.  The appointment for 
Turkey's slot was due in October, but two of the three names 
proposed by the government were not deemed qualified enough. 
The Assembly's Justice Commission had said the Turkish 
government was trying to impose a specific name by adding two 
lower-profile names to the list.  Prof. Karakas was not one 
of the names on the first list.  She will be on the Court for 
six years. 
 
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Biographic Data 
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¶2.  (U) Professor Isil Karakas graduated from Istanbul's 
Galatasaray High School in 1978 and earned an undergraduate 
degree in Political Science from Istanbul University in 1983. 
 After a year at Bogazici University's School of Foreign 
Languages, she returned to Istanbul University where she 
completed an M.A. in Public Law.  In 1990, Karakas received 
her second license degree from Marmara University's Law 
School.  She finished her dissertation on Public Law and 
earned her Ph.D. in 1992, again from Marmara University. 
 
¶3.  (U) Karakas taught at Istanbul University's Political 
Science Department beginning in 1983 as an associate 
professor, and later as an assistant professor in 1999.  That 
same year she transferred to Galatasaray University and 
became a full professor in 2003.  The following year, she 
became the Deputy Dean of the Law School of Galatasaray 
University.  Her areas of special interest are European Union 
law, and international human rights law.  Along with her 
academic career, she held different positions at various 
research centers, including the Human Rights Law Research 
Center of Istanbul University, and the European Studies and 
Documentation Center of Galatasaray University.  She 
published two books:  European Constitution (2005), and 
Diversite Culturelle en Turquie et en Europe (Cultural 
Diversity in Turkey and in Europe, 2004).  She also has many 
published articles on European law, human rights law, 
fundamental rights and freedoms, and on government 
responsibilities within the context of the implementation of 
the European Court of Human Rights decisions. 
 
¶3. (U) Prof. Karakas is known as a liberal academic who 
opposed some controversial court decisions in the past.  She 
was critical of the Constitutional Court decision to close 
down former Prime Minister Erbakan's Refah (Welfare) Party, 
as well as the ECHR decision that approved it.  She is also 
known to oppose Turkey's headscarf ban at universities, which 
the ECHR ruled was legal in 2005. 
 
¶4.  (U) Professor Karakas is married to Eser Karakas, a 
fellow professor who is well-known in Turkey for his liberal, 
pro-EU views. 
WIENER