İkram İpek
person- Image
- Sex
- Male
- Civil status
- Married
- Occupation
- Shepherd
- Event description
Per European Court of Human Rights case file, on 18th May 1994, there was a military operation on the Dahlezeri (Çağlarbaşı) hamlet of Türeli village located in Diyarbakır’s Lice district. The soldiers had left their vehicles at the village entrance and came to the hamlet on foot.
Right at that time İkram İpek and his father were bringing their animals back to the hamlet.
The soldiers separated the men from the women and children and pointed to several men, without saying their name saying “come with us and help us carry the equipment.” The brothers İkram and, Servet along with Seyithan Yolur were among those called “to help”.
The three were not heard from or seen again. Nor were their bodily remains found.
The families applied to the European Court of Human Rights when none of the internal legal channels seemed to be responsive. The ECHR decided that Turkey had been in violation of articles 2, 3, and 5 of the Convention and in violation of articles of 1 and 13 of the 1st Protocol and required that the government pay for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages.
- Geolocation
Latitude: 38.42495120000001
Longitude: 40.67040889999999
- Geolocation
- City
- Diyarbakır
- District
- Lice
- Date of disappearance
- May 18, 1994
- Year of disappearance
- 1994
- Age at the time of disappearance
- Yaş:19Ay:0Gün:12
- Status of the victim
- Still missing
- Type of source material
- Decision and correspondences of prosecutor
- ECHR decision
- Press release or report of human rights organisations
- Printed or online news
- Statement by victim/complainant
- 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: Procedural violation of the right to life
- Article 2: Substantive violation of the right to life
- Article 3: Prohibition of torture in respect of the applicant
- Article 5: Right to liberty and security
- Summary of the legal proceedings
Per ECHR case file, the İpek and Yolur families began to search for their sons after they were taken away by soldiers during a raid to their hamlet under the pretext of getting their assistance with carrying military equipment. The investigation was dismissed on 18th October 1996. The İpek family applied to the ECHR in 1999, which found Turkey to be in violation of the article 2 (right to life), 3 (prohibition of torture), 5 (right to liberty and security) and 13 (right to remedy) of the Convention as well as articles 13 of the 1st Protocol (protection of property) for the burning of the village.
In 2003, the case was re-opened in Turkey with Yakay-Der’s application to the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. The investigation went on for years with written communication and jurisdiction transfers between various offices and authorities, during which the military continued to deny that a military operation was carried out on the night in question. Eventually, the Lice Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued a standing search warrant until statute of limitations runs out on 18th April 2024 and ruled that the Lice District Gendarmerie Command should report the Prosecutor’s Office every three months. Per the last report submitted in March 2015, the perpetuators and the missing men’s whereabouts remain unidentified.