The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) pronounced its judgment on a case seen as a litmus test for justice in the face of the orgy of state-sponsored violence that unfolded in the town of Cizre during blanket curfews imposed in response to Kurdish militants’ attempts to declare self-rule in towns and neighborhoods across Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast.
The Strasbourg-based body declared a case filed on behalf of Orhan Tunc and Omer Elci inadmissible. They were among more than 130 people who perished when Turkish security forces surrounded three buildings in Cizre during operations between December 2015 and February 2016. Human Rights Watch said the forces that laid siege to the buildings had “deliberately and unjustifiably killed about 130 people — among whom were unarmed civilians and injured combatants —trapped in the basements.”
