Turkey fined 55,000 euros over explosion that killed children

STRASBOURG

The European Court of Human Rights has fined Turkey 55,000 euros over the death of a child in 1993 in the southeastern Turkey after a Turkish army mortar rocket exploded.

Five children died in Kahramanmaraş on Oct. 29, 1993, when a mortar rocket exploded near the army’s Bölükçam firing range. Fatma Oruk, currently living in Basel, Switzerland, applied to the ECHR complaining that the deaths of her son and four other children had been caused by the conduct of the armed forces, which had put people’s lives in danger.

The ECHR concluded that there was a violation of Article 2 of the right to life and fined Turkey 50,000 euros for non-pecuniary damage and 5,000 euros for the costs and expenses.

In December 1993, considering that the accident had been the result of military negligence on the part of the army, the public prosecutor declined jurisdiction and transmitted the case file to the Adana military prosecutor’s office. In December 1995, the military prosecutor discontinued the proceedings. Oruk lodged an appeal against that decision, but in January 2004 the Gaziantep military tribunal dismissed her appeal.