European court fines Turkey 100,000 for disappearance of relatives

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

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The European Court of Human Rights has fined Turkey a total of 100,000 euros for violation of Article 2, referring to the right to life, and Article 13, referring to the right to effective remedy, over the disappearance of five relatives of 18 applicants from the southeastern province of Hakkari.

The relatives, who had been working as shepherds in the mountains of Hakkari, allegedly disappeared during a military operation in 1996, amid clashes between the Turkish military and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Relatives of the missing persons claimed that the security forces were responsible for their deaths and disappearances, and also accused the authorities of not conducting thorough investigations into the matter.

While the court found no violation of the article regarding the disappearances of the relatives, the ruling also stated that there was a violation of Article 2 with regards to the investigations following the incident.
 
The court also ruled in favor of the applicants on the violation of Article 13, which calls for effective remedies granted to the persons whose rights have been violated.

The court fined Turkey 20,000 each euros for three applicants, 20,000 split between two other applicants, and 20,000 split between nine other applicants.