1 million liras paid to victims of terror in Turkey’s southeast

DİYARBAKIR – Anadolu Agency

DHA Photo

Around one million Turkish Liras has been paid to more than 31,000 individuals in Turkey’s southeastern province of Diyarbakır for damages they have suffered due to acts of terror since 2004. 

While 51,384 people in total applied to the Diyarbakır governorate, seeking compensation for the damage done by acts of terror they have experienced for more than thirty years, around one million liras were paid to the 31,282 individuals whose applications returned positive. 

The law on compensating for damages derived from terror and combatting terror, which entered into force in 2004, allows for the payment of compensation to the individuals and their families who have suffered from terror. Compensation can be given for damage to people’s homes, workplaces, cars or lands caused by terror acts, losing a relative or losing a job due to being detained. 

Members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Turkish army have been in an armed conflict since the mid-1980s. The ongoing peace process initiated by the government has been aiming to resolve this conflict. 

The damage determination commission has also regarded the street violence in early October 2014 that claimed dozens of lives in country-wide protests against the government’s perceived inaction against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL) assault on the Kurdish-populated town of Kobane in northern Syria, near the border with Turkey, within the concept of “terror acts.”

The commission ruled for 170,000 liras each to six families of victims killed during these protests. The families will receive a monthly payment and one first-degree family member will be granted the right to work for the state as an officer.