The proposed research project is concerned with the interaction between the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and Turkey, and seeks to contribute to the understanding of the Turkish case by looking through the ECtHR lens and of the European human rights system through the Turkish lens. The project will be based on an empirical analysis of the impact of the ECtHR’s case law on democracy in Turkey based on the following typology of issues: 1) rights associated with ethno-linguistic group membership; and 2) rights associated with religious group membership. Each of these issues will be elaborated on the basis of: a) freedom of association and electoral rights (and freedoms of expression and assembly where relevant); and b) freedom of religion.The project will have a retrospective and a forward looking approach by examining the evolution of the case law over time, paying attention to critical junctures in: 1) the evolution of democracy in Turkey; and 2) the evolution of the European human rights regime. The methodology will be based on an examination of the case law (at the European and national level), interviews (in Turkey, Strasbourg and Brussels), secondary literature, review of official documents and media analysis. The project outputs will be: 1) a monograph published by an academic press, 2) peer-reviewed articles published in academic journals with open access, 3) a policy paper, and 4) an international conference in Turkey.Based on an interdisciplinary approach inspired from law, political science and sociology, the project aims to fill a gap in the literatures on Europeanization, transnational constitutional pluralism, legal mobilization and supranational human rights regimes, and to contribute to democracy and new governance studies.