Tahsin Çiçek
person- Image
- Sex
- Male
- Civil status
- Married
- Occupation
- Peasant
- Dependants
- 7
- Event description
Ali İhsan Çiçek, who was married with six children, was living in Tilé (Dernek) village of Diyarbakır province. Per ECHR ruling delivered on 5th September 2001 and the articles published in various media agencies, on 10th May 1994, early in the morning, about a hundred soldiers from the Lice District Gendarmes Headquarters raided the village. The men were gathered at the center of the village and the soldiers carried out an identity check. They took six villagers into custody, including the two brothers Tahsin and Ali İhsan Çiçek. The villagers were then taken to the Lice Regional Boarding School.
On the second day of their detention, Tahsin and Ali İhsan were separated from other detainees, the soldiers said that they were releasing two brothers and other detainees would be released soon. When remaining four villagers were released the following day and returned to the village, they found out that Çiçek brothers had not come back home.
On 27th May 1994, witnesses saw that Tahsin’s son Çayan, who was 16 years old at the time of the incident, was taken away by security forces from his house.
Çiçek brothers and Çayan Çiçek have not been seen or heard from since that time nor have their bodily remains been found.
The mother of Çiçek brothers and grandmother of Çayan, contacted people who were detained at the Lice Regional Boarding School at the time of their disappearance and some of them told him that they were indeed kept together with Ali İhsan and Tahsin. Mrs Çiçek applied several times to the Lice Gendarmerie Command as well as the office of Diyarbakır State Security Court Chief Public Prosecutor but she was constantly told that they had no information regarding his sons and grandson.
After the exhaustion of domestic remedies, on 8th November 1994, the family applied to the European Court of Human Rights. The ECHR decided on 5th September 2001, that there had been a violation of article 2 (right to life) in its substantial and procedural aspects as well as a violation of article 3 (prohibition of torture), article 5 (right to liberty and security) and article 13 (right to effective remedy) of the European Convention on Human Rights.
- Geolocation
Latitude: 38.42495120000001
Longitude: 40.67040889999999
- Geolocation
- City
- Diyarbakır
- District
- Lice
- Date of disappearance
- May 10, 1994
- Year of disappearance
- 1994
- Age at the time of disappearance
- Yaş:44
- Status of the victim
- Still missing
- Type of source material
- 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: 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 ruling delivered on 5th September 2001, Çiçek family applied to various state bodies to find their relatives, all to no avail; the Gendarmerie Command’s records showed that the Çiçek brothers, who had been placed in custody during a military operation on their village, had been released two days later, while the authorities denied any involvement in the disappearance of Çayan, the son of one of the brothers, who was taken from the fields by soldiers eighteen days later according to eye witnesses. The Office of Lice Chief Public Prosecutor opened an investigation into the disappearance of the three men but there was no progress in the judiciary process. 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 indictement 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 Commaner was acquitted; however, as of 2019, the case is under review by the Court of Cassation.