Çayan Çiçek
person- Image
- Sex
- Male
- Civil status
- Single
- Occupation
- Children
- Peasant
- Event description
Per ECHR ruling delivered on 5th September 2001, on 27th May 1994, sixteen-year-old Çayan Çiçek, who suffered from night blindness and had limited daytime vision, was taken into custody in the Dernek (Tıle) village of Diyarbakır’s Lice district by soldiers from the Bolu Commando Brigade, according to eye witnesses. Shortly before, the brigade had engaged in an armed clash in a nearby village and had burnt it down. Since then, Çayan Çiçek has not been seen or heard from, nor have his bodily remains been found. The military authorities denied taking him into custody.
Çayan Çiçek’s father and uncle had been placed under custody during a military operation on their village about eighteen days prior and disappeared. His grandmother applied to the ECHR on 8th November 1994, the family applied to the European Court of Human Rights. On 5th September 2001 the ECHR ruled that, in the disappearance of the Çiçek brothers, there had been a violation of article 2 (right to life) in its substantial and procedural aspects, article 5 (right to liberty and security) and article 13 (right to effective remedy) as well as a violation of article 3 (prohibition of torture-with regards to the family members of the disappeared) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court dismissed Çayan Çiçek’s case due to lack of evidence.
- Geolocation
Latitude: 38.4249512
Longitude: 40.6704089
- Geolocation
- City
- Diyarbakır
- District
- Lice
- Date of disappearance
- May 27, 1994
- Year of disappearance
- 1994
- Age at the time of disappearance
- Yaş:17
- Status of the victim
- Still missing
- Type of source material
- ECHR decision
- Press release or report of human rights organisations
- Printed or online news
- Decision by the prosecution office
- Daimi arama kararı ile zamanaşımı bürosuna tevdi edildi
- Verdict of ECHR
- Violation of the right(s)
- Articles violated according to ECHR verdict
- Article 13: Right to an effective remedy
- Article 2: Violation of right to life
- Article 3: Prohibition of torture
- Article 5: Right to liberty and security
- Summary of the legal proceedings
Per ECHR ruling delivered on 5th September 2001, when Çayan Çiçek’s family inquired about him after he had been taken into custody by soldiers engaged in armed clash in a nearby area, the authorities denied that he had been taken. The family’s efforts to find Çayan or his father and uncle who had also disappeared under custody about eighteen days ago proved fruitless; the investigation launched by the Office of Lice Chief Public Prosecutor did not produce any results. After the exhaustion of domestic remedies, on 8th November 1994, the family applied to the European Court of Human Rights. On 5th September 2001 the ECHR ruled that, in the disappearance of the Çiçek brothers, there had been a violation of article 2 (right to life) in its substantial and procedural aspects, article 5 (right to liberty and security) and article 13 (right to effective remedy) as well as a violation of article 3 (prohibition of torture-with regards to the family members of the disappeared) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court dismissed Çayan Çiçek’s case due to lack of evidence.
In the indictment bill of a court case filed in October 2013 against the former Commander of the Bolu Commando Brigade involving eleven unsolved murders, the Çiçeks’ names were mentioned as possible victims among twenty-five other victims. The former Commander was acquitted; however, as of 2019, the case is under review by the Court of Cassation.