Turkey, Cyprus back in ECHR over murder of Güzelyurtlu family
THE Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said on Wednesday it will hold a hearing on March 28 into the case of a Turkish Cypriot family who were murdered in South Cyprus in 2005.
The hearing will take place after the ECHR Grand Chamber panel accepted the requests of the governments of South Cyprus and Turkey [representing the TRNC] that the case be referred to the 17-member chamber.
Last April, the ECHR ruled that the South and Turkey had violated the European Convention on Human Rights because they failed to co-operate in the investigation of the triple murder of the Turkish Cypriot family gunned down in their car on the South Nicosia-Larnaca highway in 2005.
Elmas Güzelyurtlu, his wife Zerrin, and their 15-yearold daughter Eylül were kidnapped from their home in Ayios Dometios, in South Nicosia and driven to the location where they were later found dead on January 15, 2005.
The perpetrators were criminals from the Turkish Cypriot underworld. They escaped to the North and have never been tried and punished for the murder because of the lack of cooperation between the South and the TRNC.
In its ruling last April the ECHR found by five votes to two that there had been a violation of Article 2 (right to life/investigation) of the European Convention on Human Rights by both South Cyprus and Turkey [TRNC]. The court held that each respondent government was to pay each of the seven applicants, the Güzelyurtlus’ family members, 8,500 euros in respect of non-pecuniary damage.
The Chamber found that “it was clear that neither government had been prepared to compromise and find middle ground, despite various options having been put forward, including by the United Nations”.
It had also rejected the Greek Cypriot government’s notion that cooperation with the North lent legitimacy to the TRNC.
The court said that it did not accept that steps taken to cooperate in this case would amount to recognition, implied or otherwise of the TRNC.