Sub-sub-series 25 - Zübeyde Dulaş

1 file

Materials pertaining to the case filed by Zübeyde Dulaş on 2 May 1994 against the Republic of Turkey with the European Commission of Human Rights (application number 25801/94, referred to internally within the Kurdish Litigation Project as Case 90 and assigned to Françoise Hampson as lead) regarding the destruction of her home and property during an operation by gendarmes carried out in the village of Çitlibahçe, Diyarbakır Province, on 8 November 1993. Supplementary materials pertaining to this case are located at A44/43/6/31.
Çitlibahçe was in a district in which terrorist activity was intense in 1993. The PKK used to come to the village, holding meetings and taking food by force. The security forces made regular visits and operations were not uncommon. They told the villagers not to give food to the PKK. Shortly before 8 November 1993, PKK members went to the village of Dadaş in the Hazro district and took away five teachers, the imam and the imam’s brother. All, save one of the teachers, were shot. The imam’s brother, though wounded, survived. Following the discovery of the bodies of the teachers, the gendarmes at Hazro gathered information from their contacts and sources as to what had happened and who had been involved. They had descriptions of the villagers in the area who had been assisting the PKK in holding the group of teachers. On 8 November 1993, an operation, under the command of Lieutenant Altınoluk, was carried out by the Hazro gendarmes in Çitlibahçe, while gendarmes from Lice went to Bağlan nearby. The Commission found that the Hazro gendarmes included Çitlibahçe in the operation since they intended to look for and take into custody Ahmet Çakıcı, who, as a person already under suspicion of involvement in PKK activities, would be likely to have information about the kidnap group that passed through the village. When the gendarmes arrived at the village, early in the morning, they left their vehicles outside and entered. They gathered the men together in one place and the women in another. Ahmet Çakıcı had hidden. A search was carried out by the gendarmes, who also started setting fire to houses. Ahmet Çakıcı was found and taken into custody. He was last seen by the witnesses being taken by village guards and soldiers to the vehicles.
Zübeyde Dulaş had gone into her house when she saw all of the soldiers but had been forced to leave by the soldiers. They set fire to her house, which had seven rooms and was made of timber. The family stored provisions, crops and wheat inside and these, along with the furniture and other household goods, were destroyed. About fifty houses in the village were burned down. She stated that once the gendarmes had caught Ahmet Çakıcı, the gendarmes left. After the departure of the gendarmes, the village was left in ruins and villagers were forced to leave.
Zübeyde Dulaş and other villagers went to Diyarbakır after the operation. Accompanied by her son and three or four other villagers, the applicant went to the Human Rights Association. She made a statement and thumbprinted it. Sometime later, the applicant was summoned to a police station. In his evidence to the Delegates, her son, Avni Dulaş, remembered that she had been summoned to the public prosecutor’s office in about the summer of 1995. He accompanied her there. She had been asked to make a statement. The public prosecutor read out of a file, stating that she had complained to Europe about Turkey. He told the Delegates that he thought the prosecutor was trying to put pressure on his mother.
On 30 January 2001, the European Court of Human Rights unanimously ruled that violations of Articles 3, 8, and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights had occurred, ruled 6 votes to 1 that a violation of Article 13 had occurred, and ruled unanimously that the Government failed to comply with its obligations under former Article 25 § 1 of the Convention. The Government were ordered to pay Zübeyde Dulaş £12,600 sterling in pecuniary damages, £10,000 sterling in non-pecuniary damages, and £14,900 sterling (less 7,500 French francs received in legal aid) in costs and expenses. The full judgment is available for viewing at https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/?i=001-59161.
Materials relating to a separate application pertaining to the 8 November 1994 events in Çitlibahçe filed by İzzet Çakıcı, brother of Ahmet Çakıcı, can be found at A44/43/1/20.

The files in this sub-sub-series are equivalent to Tabs 1 through 15 in the legal team’s filing system, plus documents originally placed in sleeves at the front of the casefile binder.