Nazım Gülmez
person- Image
- Sex
- Male
- Civil status
- Married
- Occupation
- Peasant
- Dependants
- 10
- Event description
Per ECHR case file, Nazım Gülmez was a sixty-one-year-old peasant living in the Ovalı hamlet of Taşıtlı (Torat) village of Dersim’s Hozat district. On 14th October 1994 (15th October according to his family), during a military raid on the hamlet, he was taken into custody by soldiers. When his family asked about him at the gendarmerie station, they were told that he had been released on the following day. The family continued to search for him, to no avail. The family’s efforts to initiate an investigation in 2002 remained fruitless as various civil and military prosecutor’s offices transferred the file among themselves citing jurisdiction problems. The family’s application to the ECHR was found inadmissible due to the six-month rule for applications.
Nazım Gülmez has not been heard from or seen, nor have his bodily remains been found.
- Geolocation
Latitude: 39.108024999999984
Longitude: 39.218669999999996
- Geolocation
- City
- Tunceli
- District
- Hozat
- Date of disappearance
- Oct 14, 1994
- Year of disappearance
- 1994
- Age at the time of disappearance
- Yaş:61
- 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
- Unknown
- Verdict of ECHR
- Non-compliance with the six-month time limit
- Summary of the legal proceedings
Per ECHR case file, after Gülmez was taken itno custody by soldiers raiding their hamlet, family members first applied to the district Gendarmerie Station and then to the Office of the Governor to learn about the whereabouts of Nazım Gülmez, however they received the same answer: "He has been taken under custody but then released, and his whereabouts are unknown." The mayors of his and neighbouring districts sent a letter to the Prime Minister's Office asking about the whereabouts of the 6 villagers -including Nazım Gülmez- who had disappeared after being taken under custody by the Gendarmerie in the region but received no reply.
After years of fearful waiting, his family members applied to the local Prosecution Office to initiate an investigation about his disappearance in 2002. The investigation file was sent from one office to another without any effective investigation, so the family applied to the European Court of Human Rights but the Court rejected their application since they failed to comply with the six-month rule contained in Article 35 § 1 because they had not lodged their applications until many years after the disappearance of their relatives.