Sub-sub-series 13 - Süheyla Aydın

14 files

Materials pertaining to the case filed by Süheyla Aydın against the Republic of Turkey with the European Commission of Human Rights (application number 23660/94, referred to internally within the Kurdish Litigation Project as Case 31 and assigned to Kevin Boyle as lead) regarding the forced disappearance and murder of her husband Necati Aydın, whose body was found on 9 April 1994 in a location outside Diyarbakır with his hands tied at the back. He had been shot in the head with a single bullet.
At the time of the incident, Süheyla was pregnant and worked as an anaesthetics nurse, while Necati was an environmental technician and president of Tüm Sağlık-Sen (Health Workers’ Trade Union). Both had faced harassment and arrests by security forces due to their union activities. The couple had no permanent residence due to multiple transfer orders.
On 18 March 1994, they were at the home of Necati's cousin, Mehmet Hafif Ay, in Diyarbakır when police arrived, having arrested Ay earlier. The police detained all family members present, including a young child, and took them to the rapid response force building for interrogation. Süheyla, feeling unwell due to her pregnancy, was separated from her family and blindfolded. She heard her husband's screams during torture.
Süheyla was interrogated three times. During her first questioning, she was asked about her husband’s whereabouts. The second time, she briefly saw Necati, who was naked, wet, and shivering. He was tortured while she was made to listen. On the third occasion, the police forced her to strip naked, threatening Necati with harm if he didn’t answer questions. Süheyla's condition worsened after this trauma, and she was later moved to a cell with another detainee and her children, where they stayed for four nights before her release on 22 March 1994 without being seen by a judge. Another relative, Yasemin Aydın, was also detained and tortured during her time in custody while being questioned about Necati. She was released on 29 April 1994.
Necati and his cousin Mehmet Ay were brought before the Diyarbakır State Security Court on 4 April 1994. Lawyer Sezgin Tanrıkulu saw Necati being brought into the court on that day. On the evening of 9 April 1994, villagers found three bodies buried in a shallow grave near the Pamuklu river, two of whom were identified as Necati Aydın and Mehmet Ay. Autopsies determined that the men had been executed, as evidenced by their tied hands and gunshot wounds. Officials in Turkey attributed the killings to the PKK. According to a number of documents drawn up by public prosecutors and soldiers between 1996 and 1999, each of which is one paragraph long and most of which are identical pro-forma documents, it had not been possible to find the perpetrators of the killings despite the investigations carried out and the visits made to the area where the bodies had been found. These documents contained no information indicating what specific steps had been taken.
On 27 March 2003, the European Court of Human Rights unanimously ruled that there the Government was liable for Necati Aydın’s death, and rules that there had been violations of Articles 3, 8 and 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Süheyla Aydın was awarded €30,000 in pecuniary damages, €3,500 in non-pecuniary damages, and €20,000 in costs and expenses. €21,000 were also awarded to be held in trust for the heirs of Necati Aydın. The full judgment is available for viewing at https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/?i=001-69139.
Due to the surname ‘Aydın’ being very common in Turkey and the confusion resulting from the multiple cases taken on by the Kurdish Litigation Project involving applicants named Aydın, some material pertaining to other applicants named Aydın is present. This primarily refers to three applications (nos. 28293/95 (Kurdish Litigation Project case 194), 29494/95 and 30219/96) lodged by Kasım, Cemal, Sultan, Arife, Nuriye, Kemal, Ali Aziz, Yıldız, Songül, Gülbahar and Eser Aydın and Şirin Erenler-Aydın regarding the October 1994 disappearance of their husband and father, Müslüm Aydın, and the destruction by security forces of their family home, property and animals in Sarısaltık village. Kevin Boyle was originally the lead representative in Kasım Aydın's application before being forced to step down when the Commission joined the three applications together in mid-1999. These three cases ended in friendly settlements after the local legal representative took over litigation.
Any materials pertaining to the case of the similarly-named Şükran Aydın have been moved to the appropriate sub-sub-series (A44/43/1/14).

The files in this file are equivalent to Tabs 1 through 12 in the legal team’s filing system, plus documents placed in separate tabs and sleeves at the front of the file (file 13) and a separate spiral-bound notebook (file 14).