Constitutional Court Rejects Application on Cizre Basements

Constitutional Court has rejected HDP Group Deputy Chair Danış-Beştaş’s application regarding the violations of rights committed in Şırnak’s Cizre during the period of curfews on the ground of lack of venue and not exhausting all legal remedies.

Ayça Söylemez

Constitutional Court Rejects Application on Cizre Basements

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA) - Archive

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Announcing its justified ruling today (April 17), the Constitutional Court has found the application of Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Group Deputy Chair Meral Danış-Beştaş on Cizre basements "inadmissible."

In operations conducted in Sur and Cudi neighborhoods in the district of Cizre in Turkey's Kurdish-majority Şırnak province during the period of curfews in 2015 and 2016, 189 people in total lost their lives.

While applications were made to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) about the issue, in its ruling dated February 7, 2019, the ECtHR rejected one of the applications on the ground that domestic remedies had not yet been exhausted, thereby referring to the Constitutional Court.

The verdict announced today is about the the application of Danış-Beştaş, who previously applied to court via her attorney Pınar Akdemir. The application noted that "curfews violated the right to life, prohibition of torture and ill treatment, personal liberty and security and right to privacy."

'Legal remedies not exhausted'

In its justified ruling, the Constitutional Court has indicated that the applicant was not directly affected by the acts in question:

"In order for an individual application to be accepted, it does not suffice for applicants to claim that they are an aggrieved party, but they are obligated to show that they were directly affected by the violation in question, i.e. they were aggrieved, and to convince the Constitutional Court about this aggrievement. Accordingly, the presumption or suspicion of being aggrieved is not sufficient for the status of an aggrieved party."

The Court has also come to the following conclusion as to the prohibition of torture and ill treatment as per the Article 17/3 of the Constitution:

"Considering that the applicant who claims that she was subjected to acts within the scope of Article 17/3 of the Constitution did not express this claim before the competent public authorities before making an individual application and that she did not apply to mobilize the relevant investigative authorities, it has been concluded that - as required by the secondary quality of individual applications - it is not possible for the Constitutional Court to examine the incident which is the matter in dispute in this application. The applicant has also not been able to prove that the relevant authorities of the state are obligated to start de facto criminal proceedings by being informed about the related incident in some way."

The verdict has indicated that the application is inadmissible due to the lack of legal venue and not exhausting all legal remedies.

What happened in Cizre?

While the curfew declared in the district of Cizre in Turkey's southeastern province of Şırnak on December 14, 2015 was still in effect, Minister of Interior of the time Efkan Ala announced on February 11, 2016 that the operations of blockade were ended.

However, the curfew in Cizre was rearranged in a way to be in force at nights as of March 2, 2016 and entry to/ exit from the district was prohibited until March 2, 2016.

After the curfew was lifted in the neighborhoods of Cudi and Sur in Cizre, 177 dead bodies, 25 of which belonged to children, were found in the wreckages and debris of mainly 3 buildings and the houses in their vicinity.

While the 103 of the deceased could be identified, 74 people were put to rest without being identified. The total number of the dead has been announced as 189.

According to the report of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), almost all of the dead bodies were beyond recognition because they were either burned or decomposed.

The remnants of human bones and military ammunition were found in the basements. Forensic Experts also found remnants of human bones of children in the basements.

(AS/SD)

cizre inadmissible cizre basements Constitutional Court meral danış beştaş Curfew

Ayça Söylemez

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Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Felsefe Bölümü mezunu. Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Üniversitesi Sosyoloji bölümünde yüksek lisans yaptı. Marmara Üniversitesi İletişim Bilimleri’nde doktora yapıyor. Vatan, Akşam, HaberTürk ve Hürriyet gazetelerinin yazıişleri ve dış haberler bölümünde çalıştı. Güncel Hukuk dergisinde yazıları yayınlandı. BirGün’de Anonim adlı köşeyi yazıyor. 2011’den bu yana bianet’te İnsan Hakları Editörü.