Turkey's Constitutional Court says it has rejected 70,771 applications over state of emergency

ANKARA

The Constitutional Court on Aug. 4 stated that it has rejected a total of 70,771 applications over cases related to the state of emergency, saying domestic legal remedies had not yet been exhausted by the applicants.   

The Court said the applications were turned down because they had been individually issued to the Constitutional Court, without first applying to the commission set up to examine complaints about state of emergency decrees.

Constitutional Court head Zühtü Arslan had said in April that they had received over 100,000 individual applications, with three quarters of them coming after the coup attempt.

A state of emergency has been in place in Turkey since July 20, 2016, declared by the government after the failed military coup attempt of July 15, 2016.

The Turkish parliament extended the ongoing state of emergency on July 17 by three more months starting from July 19, its fourth such extension after the July 15, 2016 failed coup attempt.