Materials pertaining to the case filed by Salih Orhan against the Republic of Turkey with the European Commission of Human Rights (application number 25656/94, referred to internally within the Kurdish Litigation Project as Case 168 and assigned to Tim Otty as lead) regarding the alleged burning and evacuation of Deveboyu hamlet, Çağlayan village, Kulp District, Diyarbakır Province and the apprehension and killing of his two brothers and his son during May 1994 by state security forces. On 18 June 2002, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that multiple violations of the European Convention on Human Rights had occurred. The Turkish Government were ordered to pay the Orhan family £90,000 sterling in damages and legal costs. The full judgment is available for viewing at https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/?i=001-60509.
Materials in the file include: the application of 24 November 1994, including the statement of the applicant and copies of petitions to state authorities; the 20 June 1995 applicant’s reply to the observations of the Turkish Government; the post of 2 June 1997 authorising Tim Otty to act as legal representative in the case and enclosing the applicant’s further submissions, including a copy of the Kurdish Human Rights Project’s November 1996 report on disappearances in Turkey.
Observations on the merits of the Salih Çetin application against Turkey submitted by the applicant to the European Commission of Human Rights. The observations submit that the applicant has attempted to exhaust domestic remedies by submitting multiple petitions to multiple agencies but as yet has received little response and no assistance from the Government. The observations also discuss the targeting of ethnic Kurdish villages by the Government and the sanctioning of the destructions of entire villages by the military as a result.
Copies (in Turkish with English translations) of all petitions filed by Salih Çetin to domestic authorities in Turkey pertaining to the destruction of his house and property on 4 March 1993.
Casefile (in Turkish with English translations) of the Diyarbakır Gendarmerie Command investigation into the destruction of Salih Çetin's property, submitted by the Turkish Government on 3 November 1995 in advance of the hearings in the case on 6-10 November 1995. The enclosing letter to the European Commission of Human Rights from İsmet Birsel, Ambassador of Turkey to the Council of Europe, notes that the domestic investigation into the case has now been transferred to the Kulp District Gendarmerie Command Headquarters.
Materials pertaining to the case filed by Salih Çetin on 25 August 1993 against the Republic of Turkey with the European Commission of Human Rights (application number 22677/93, referred to internally within the Kurdish Litigation Project as Case 56 and assigned to Kevin Boyle as lead), regarding the destruction of his house which occurred during the burning of the hamlet of Derecik, Çağlayan village, Kulp District, Diyarbakır Province on 4 March 1993.
The mayor of Çağlayan had been instructed by a Gendarme First Sergeant as early as the autumn of 1992 to evacuate the village. When the mayor refused, the sergeant instructed him to evacuate the village within two weeks or else it would be destroyed. Soon thereafter, a nearby hamlet was bombed. The inhabitants of Derecik became frightened that their hamlet would soon be bombed and fled; Çetin and his family were among these inhabitants and fled in February 1993. After vacating the hamlet for just over a week, Çetin returned on 4 March 1993 to find his house, grocery store, and beehives destroyed among a total of 28 houses which had been burned that day. Çetin learned from eyewitnesses that security forces had burned the houses. Çetin was forced to leave Derecik and move to Diyarbakır. According to the Turkish Government, the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) received moral and material support from inhabitants of Derecik. The Government admitted that security operations took place in Derecik on 4 March 1993 but denied any use of fire. The Government claimed that the residents set fire to their own ‘old and useless’ houses in order to receive compensation and undermine the position of the security forces.
Despite numerous requests from the Commission, the Government failed to submit the investigation file of the public prosecutors. The Commission also found that it was not likely for Çetin to have set fire to his own home as he had fled to a neighbouring hamlet before the fires of 4 March 1993 took place. On 15 October 1996, the Commission adopted a report declaring the application admissible, and the case was subsequently referred to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. On 26 November 1996, the Committee declared that a violation of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (no access to a tribunal to claim civil rights) had occurred. No reports or judgments in this case were made public.
Two advertisements for the sale of the rentals of Hollybrook, Co. Dublin containing 11 acres and held on a long lease from John and James Barlow to Archibald Richardson and late leased to Christopher Ormsby. Tenants names are Joseph Lamprey, Alexander Murray, Mr. Slack, George Symes, Henry Farange, James Symes, Dr. Collins and J. Smith, not all names appear on each one. Their yearly rent is also given and particulars were at the offices of Labertouche and Stafford, 25 College Green and Messrs Mills and Echlin, 12 Gloucester St., printed.
Materials pertaining to the sale of land and effects held by the extended Kirwan family.
Legal documents and associated papers, mainly generated by the firm of solicitors, E and G Stapleton, in connection with the purchase of the Belvoir estate by the Land Commission over a 10 year period. John Wilson Lynch began the process by filing a petition in the Land Court in early 1909 for the sale of the lands settled in the deed of 12 August 1864. After the death of their father, William Wilson Lynch and his brother Thomas David Wilson Lynch came to an agreement in 1912, whereby William would have the Belvoir estate in exchange for releasing Thomas from various charges William held on the Duras estate, and by taking the additional surname of Wilson. Once William Wilson Lynch's ownership of the estate was established the sale advanced. A schedule of tenancies was produced in mid-1916 and the Land Commission offered to buy the estate for £18,401. William Wilson Lynch bought back the Belvoir demesne for £4,574. In 1917 the Land Commission refused to issue a Request to the Land Court for the sale of the estate as there was insufficient land available to divide among the tenants. William Wilson Lynch then consented to give up a portion of the lands he held and the estate was sold to the Land Commission in Jan 1922. [See also LE6/B/61-62, and B/482].
Letters and associated papers relating to the sale of Roo Demesne, Leagh North and Shanclogh, parish of Kinvarradoorus, to the tenants. These were the 3 lots of the Daly Estate purchased in 1873, by John Wilson Lynch, through the Encumbered Estates Court. The sale was negotiated with the Land Commission by J Murray Walker and George Lyster, solicitor, on John Wilson Lynch's behalf. Father Molony represented the tenants' interests. The sale of 2 holdings was delayed, that of John Dermody [see LE6/B/663-679] and that of John McInerney, who died in the autumn of 1889.