Olgun Akbulut
Prof. Dr. Olgun Akbulut is a scholar specializing in minority rights, human rights, and constitutional law. His research explores various issues affecting minority groups, including political participation, linguistic rights, self-governance models, historical minority protection mechanisms, and the legal frameworks safeguarding minority rights in post-World War II legal systems.
He earned his PhD from Istanbul University, Faculty of Law, with a dissertation on the emergence and international protection of minority rights. He has held research positions at Harvard Law School, the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Lund University. Before joining the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) as a visiting scholar, he taught human rights, minority rights, and constitutional law at Kadir Has University, Faculty of Law, in Turkey.
Olgun serves on the editorial board of the International Journal on Minority and Group Rights and acts as a consultant for the Council of Europe’s project “Fostering Societal Cohesion by Reinforcing Minority Rights and Minority Languages”. He is also a legal expert in the COST Action CA23105 on Language Plurality in Europe’s Changing Media Sphere and a researcher in the Horizon Europe WIDERA Program on Equality through Gender+ Budgeting for Institutional Transformation.
His scholarly work has been published by Oxford University Press, Brill, Intersentia, Martinus Nijhoff, On Iki Levha, and in numerous peer-reviewed academic journals.
In English:
2024: “Turkey’s Relationship with International Law: Reflections on the Equal Sovereign Partner Bid”, co-authored with Isil Karakas, in Anne van Aken and others (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of International Law in Europe, Oxford University Press, p. 801-823.
2023: “For Centenary of the Lausanne Treaty: Re-interpretation and Re-implementation of Linguistic Minority Rights of Lausanne”, 31(4) International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 603-626.
2022: “Values of the Charter”, (with Bige Açımuz) in Stefano Angeleri, Carole Nivard (Eds.) The European Social Charter: A Commentary, Brill Publishers, 2022, pp. 264-293.
2019: Olgun Akbulut and Elcin Aktoprak (Eds.), Minority Self-government in Europe and the Middle East: From Theory to Practice, Brill Publications, 2019.
2019: “Legal Background of Autonomy Arrangements in Turkey from Historical Perspectives” in Olgun Akbulut and Elcin Aktoprak (Eds.), Minority Self-government in Europe and the Middle East: From Theory to Practice, Brill Publications, 2019, pp. 228-245.
2016: “Turkey: The European Convention on Human Rights as a Tool for Modernisation” Chapter 16 in Patricia Popelier, Koen Lemmens, Sarah Lambrecht (Eds.), Criticism on the European Court of Human Rights. Shifting the Convention System: Counter- Dynamics at the National and EU-Level, Intersentia, 2016, pp. 413-446.
2016: “Freedom of Expression” Or “Political Support For Violence”? The Survival Test for Political Parties in Pluralist Democracies”, 5 Humanities and Social Sciences Review 131-140.
2010: “Criteria Developed by the European Court of Human Rights on the Dissolution of Political Parties”, 34 Fordham International Law Journal 46-77.
2010: “A Critical Analysis of Current Legal Developments on the Political Participation of Minorities in Turkey”, 17 International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 551-560.
2008: “Parental Religious Rights vs. Compulsory Religious Education”, co-authored with Z.O. Usal, 15 International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 433-455.
2005: “The State of Political Participation of Minorities in Turkey – An Analysis under the ECHR and the ICCPR”, 12 International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 375-395.
