Sub-sub-series 12 - Ahmet Ayder and others

3 files

Materials pertaining to the case filed by Ahmet Ayder, Yusuf Lalealp, Nadir Doman, Şevket Biçer, and Zeydin Ekmekçi (otherwise known as ‘Ayder and others’) against the Republic of Turkey with the European Commission of Human Rights (application number 23656/93, referred to internally within the Kurdish Litigation Project as Cases 103 through 107 and assigned to Françoise Hampson as lead) regarding the destruction of their homes and property during an operation by security forces in the town of Lice in Diyarbakır Province, Turkey, on 22 October 1993 as part of what became known as the Lice Massacre.
On 22 October 1993, Brigadier General Bahtiyar Aydın, the regional commander of the Gendarmerie in Diyarbakır, was shot and killed in Lice under unclear circumstances. He was the highest-ranking Turkish commander to have been killed in the first nine years of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict. Although the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) denied involvement in the assassination on the grounds that it did not want to provoke retaliatory attacks that could lead to civilian casualties, state media blamed Aydın's death on the group, and the Turkish military began an operation against the town soon afterwards. The massacre has thus been seen as a potential reprisal attack for the general's death. Turkish soldiers systematically moved throughout the town, randomly firing live ammunition at the mainly Kurdish civilians and destroying both residential and commercial buildings. By the end of 23 October, at least 30 residents had been killed and a hundred more were wounded, while an estimated 401 homes and 242 businesses were destroyed, according to the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, which described Lice as having become ‘ruined and burned out’. Little damage was inflicted to state buildings, however.
Turkish politicians, including Prime Minister Tansu Çiller, were prevented by the military from visiting the town in the weeks following the attack, and half of the civilian population quickly abandoned the town, which had effectively become non-existent. Throughout the following year, similar operations were carried out against numerous other Kurdish villages and towns throughout the region, leading to large-scale displacement of the civilian population. By 1995, there were "hardly any inhabited villages left" in Lice and neighbouring Kulp district. Such attacks were intended to intimidate the Kurdish population into not assisting the PKK or otherwise engaging in pro-Kurdish activity, thus cutting the PKK off from its local support bases.
The application was also brought on behalf of the applicants' spouses and dependent children. Şevket Biçer, moreover, also brought the application on behalf of his younger sister Huri. On 27 March 2003, the European Court of Human Rights unanimously ruled that there had been violations of Articles 3, 8 and 13 and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Pecuniary costs were awarded as follows:
(i) €26,144.90 to Ahmet Ayder;
(ii) €20,239.70 to Yusuf Lalealp;
(iii) €20,239.70 to Nadir Doman;
(iv) €26,239.70 to Şevket Biçer;
(v) €20,144.90 to Zeydin Ekmekçi.
Each applicant was also awarded €14,500 in non-pecuniary damages, and the applicants’ legal representatives were awarded €40,000 less €725 in legal aid.
The full judgment is available for viewing at https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/?i=001-61560. Materials pertaining to the 16-18 June 1997 case hearing are located at A44/43/6/9.