Refusing to respond to a candidate’s request whether playing a Kurdish song in his election campaign was an offense did not limit or affect the effectiveness of his voting rights
JUDGMENT
Ahmet Yavuz Yılmaz v. Turkey 10.11.2020 (app. no. 48593/07)
Right to be elected. Possibility to play a Kurdish song in the election campaign of a candidate for MP.
The applicant is a lawyer and run in the national elections. He applied to the Electoral Council of his district to clarify if he could play a Kurdish song in his election campaign and if it was illegal, because the election law provided that the election campaign could only take place in Turkish, the The Supreme Court had ruled that the reproduction of a Kurdish song was not illegal. The Council replied that it had no jurisdiction to respond.