The Kelekçi village destruction occurred in November 1992 in the

Dicle Dicle ( ku, Pîran, ota, پيران) is a town and district of Diyarbakır Province, Turkey. The population was 8,436 in 2010. The Mayor is Felat Aygören from the Peoples' Democratic Party (Turkey), HDP. Dicle is the Turkish language, Turkish n ...

district in

Diyarbakır Province Diyarbakır Province ( tr, Diyarbakır ili, Zazaki: Suke Diyarbekır ku, Parêzgeha Amedê) is a Provinces of Turkey, province in southeastern Turkey. The province covers an area of 15,355 km2 and its population is 1,528,958. The provincia ...

, Turkey. The Turkish authorities demanded the Muhtar of the Kelekçi village to evacuate all the inhabitants of the village. But as the villagers gathered in an area, the

Turkish gendarmerie The Gendarmerie General Command ( tr, Jandarma Genel Komutanlığı) is the national Gendarmerie force of the Republic of Turkey. It is a service branch of the Turkish Ministry of Interior responsible for the maintenance of the public order in a ...

, using heavy weapons in armored vehicles began firing at the villagers and their houses. Soldiers set fire to and destroyed 136 houses. Some of the villagers escaped to nearby towns, with unknown killed. On the 6 April 1993, the Turkish authorities returned and set fire to the remaining houses. Before its destruction, the village had a population of five-hundred inhabitants. In July the same year a village guard family had decided to resign from the

village guard system Village guards ( tr, Korucular lit. "Rangers"), officially known as ''Türkiye Güvenlik Köy Korucuları'' ("Security Village Guards of Turkey"), are Gendarmerie General Command-aligned Border guards involved in the Kurdish-Turkish conflict, mos ...

that was instituted by Turkey due to three members being killed during an attack by the

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of south ...

(PKK).

International Justice Case

Nine families brought their cases to the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...

(ECHR). In 1996 the family members of the village guard family successfully had their case ruled in their favor, which "confirmed that Turkish security forces were indeed guilty of house destruction", a later judgment ruled and thus warded the villagers "pecuniary damages for destruction of the houses, livestock and crops, household property, loss of income, and cost of alternative accommodation, totaling £115,062.76 (U.S$188,702). Each applicant also received £8,000 (U.S.$13,120) in non-pecuniary damages for the emotional trauma they experienced during the destruction of their houses." It was the first case regarding village destruction in

Turkish Kurdistan Turkish Kurdistan or Northern Kurdistan () refers to the southeastern part of Turkey, where Kurds form the predominant ethnic group. The Kurdish Institute of Paris estimates that there are 20 million Kurds living in Turkey, the majority of the ...

. Turkey decided that such rulings would be detrimental and costly considering a vast amount of cases existed. The Compensation Law was passed in July 2004 within Turkey that meant families instead of directly going to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), they would first have to go through Turkey's system. This meant that Turkey decided the settlements and in some cases offered $3,350 or less.

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

wrote to the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister

Abdullah Gül Abdullah Gül (; ; born 29 October 1950) is a Turkish politician who served as the 11th President of Turkey, in office from 2007 to 2014. He previously served for four months as Prime Minister from 2002 to 2003, and concurrently served as both ...

on 22 February 2006, "urging that damage assessment should take a more consistent and fairer approach".

Condemnations

In September 1996 the European Court of Human Rights condemned Turkey. Turkey rejected the European Court of Human Rights' condemnation of Turkey.

References

{{coord missing, Turkey Kurdish settlements in Turkey 1992 in Turkey 1993 in Turkey Kurdish–Turkish conflict (1978–present)

International Justice Case

Condemnations

See Also

References