Orhan Yakar
person- Image
- Sex
- Male
- Civil status
- Single
- Occupation
- Children
- Workers
- Event description
Per ECHR’s ruling delivered on 26th November 2002, sixteen-year-old Orhan Yakar’s family reported him missing when they stopped hearing from their son, who had moved to İstanbul from his native city of Ağrı to work there. Shortly later, the Doğubeyazıt Gendarmerie Command informed his father that Orhan Yakar, who had evidently joined the PKK, had been captured in Bingöl by the security forces on 17th November 1996. When the father went to Bingöl, he was told that his son had stepped on a landmine and died and that his body could not be given to the family. The father tried to obtain the body, to no avail. In 1997, he applied to the ECHR, which invited the parties to reconcile amicably, resulting in payment of compensation to the family for violation of article 2 (right to life) of the Convention.
- Geolocation
Latitude: 38.885464
Longitude: 40.496624999999995
- Geolocation
- City
- Bingöl
- Date of disappearance
- Nov 17, 1996
- Year of disappearance
- 1996
- Age at the time of disappearance
- Yaş:16
- Status of the victim
- Discovered dead but not returned to the family
- Type of source material
- ECHR decision
- Parliamentary question and answers
- Printed or online news
- Decision by the prosecution office
- Decision of non-prosecution due to statute of limitations
- Verdict of ECHR
- Friendly settlement
- Summary of the legal proceedings
Per ECHR ruling delivered on 26th November 2002, when Orhan Yakar’s father tried to obtain his son’s dead body, he was told by the Bingöl Gendarmerie Command that, after his capture during an operation against the PKK, his son had stepped on a landmine and died, which made it impossible for the soldiers to collect the body from the scene. Believing that his son had been executed after capture, Orhan Yakar’s father applied to the ECHR in 1997 after exhausting domestic remedies. In 2002, both parties agreed on an amicable resolution, with Turkey admitting to violation of article 2 (right to life) of the Convention. In the same year, the Council of State overturned the ruling of the Bingöl Governorate’s Administrative Board’s that the soldiers had not committed negligence by not collecting Orhan Yakar’s body parts; however, the Council of State also ruled that statute of limitations had run out.