Sub-sub-series 17 - İhsan Bilgin

3 files

Materials pertaining to the case filed by İhsan Bilgin on 24 March 1994 against the Republic of Turkey with the European Commission of Human Rights (application number 23819/94, referred to internally within the Kurdish Litigation Project as Case 84 and assigned to Kevin Boyle as lead) regarding the destruction of his house and property by Turkish gendarmerie. Supplementary materials pertaining to this case are located at A44/43/6/17.
On 28 September 1993 a large number of gendarmes arrived in Yukarıgören, a hamlet attached to the village of Güzderesi. They were probably looking for Faysal Alpan, who lived there and who was suspected of PKK related activities. The gendarmes ordered him and the other inhabitants of Yukarıgören to remove the harvested tobacco leaves from their houses and to pile them up in front of the houses. The gendarmes then set fire to the tobacco. On that day the gendarmes apprehended 11 or 12 persons in Güzderesi, including the two sons of Hüsnü Eraslan and a son of Mehmet Salih Eraslan, and placed them in detention. Although the applicant had no precise recollection whether this occurred on the same day or two weeks later, the gendarmes further damaged and broke the furnishings, windows and various household goods in his house. The applicant took photographs of the burned mound of tobacco and the damage caused to his possessions in his house.
In the late summer or fall of 1994, on a day when the applicant was in Batman, the gendarmes returned to Yukarıgören. The applicant’s family was the only household to have remained in the hamlet; all other inhabitants having moved away in the meantime. After the gendarmes had gathered the applicant’s family and a visiting guest at the water tower in the hamlet, the gendarmes set fire to the houses in the hamlet. The applicant returned to Yukarıgören in the morning of the following day. After the burning of his house, the applicant and his family left Yukarıgören. The Government stated that at the relevant time there were many PKK activities in the region, and the area was regularly patrolled by gendarmes for military, administrative, judicial and civil purposes. According to the military authorities no operation had been conducted in or around Güzderesi at the material time.
On 16 November 2000, the European Court of Human Rights unanimously ruled that there had been violations of Articles 3, 8, 13, and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Turkish Government was ordered to pay Bilgin £12,000 sterling in pecuniary damages, £10,000 sterling in non-pecuniary damages, and £21,000 sterling in legal costs and expenses (less 13,445 French francs received in legal aid). The full judgment is available for viewing at https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-58987