GÜLEÇ JUDGMENT OF 27 JULY 1998 15 While he was at the district authority offices the gendarmes had informed him by walkie-talkie that a group of three to four thousand people was heading towards the centre of town. Mr Zerey and his men had gone out to meet the demonstrators in order to inform them that they were demonstrating illegally and should stop. However, the demonstrators had continued their march. Mr Zerey and his men had returned to the district authority offices. After the arrival of the gendarmes, Mr Zerey had remained in the District Commissioner’s office and had not witnessed the incidents. Following a call from a group of gendarmes led by Mr Ersöz and stationed in front of the post office, the armoured vehicle had been sent to their assistance. Mr Zerey had not seen the shooting. The demonstrators had been armed and violent. They had damaged a post-office vehicle and other public property. The security forces had returned fire from the demonstrators. The security forces had not been equipped with batons or riot shields which could have helped them to quell the demonstrators. They had been armed with handguns and rifles. Mr Zerey also asserted that if the security forces had fired directly on the crowd, more than two people would have been killed. He also stated that the cartridges found in the streets after the incidents belonged to inhabitants of İdil. It was routine procedure for the security forces to pick up spent cartridges. According to Mr Zerey, the MG-3 gun mounted on the armoured vehicle could not possibly have been used against a crowd. If it had been, at least twenty people in the front ranks of the crowd would have been killed. (g) Güven Ersöz (commanding officer of the 8th İdil Gendarmerie Company at the material time) 36. Mr Ersöz stated that on the morning of 4 March 1991 he had learned that shops in the town had lowered their shutters. Finding this unusual, he had awaited developments in his brigade’s building. When he saw that the number of demonstrators had increased and that, despite warnings, they were continuing to advance towards the building, he had taken up position at its entrance with about thirty gendarmes. Mr Ersöz stated that the crowd of demonstrators had been made up of women and children surrounding armed men with scarves over their faces. He had warned the demonstrators that the demonstration was illegal and advised them to disperse. The women and children had tried to obey but the armed men had forced them to go on.