KURT JUDGMENT OF 25 MAY 1998 5 villagers were told that they had a week to evacuate the village. The villagers fled to Bismil, many as they were homeless, and those who were not being too scared to remain. 15. According to the applicant, around noon on 24 November 1993, when the villagers had been gathered by the soldiers in the schoolyard, the soldiers were looking for her son, Üzeyir, who was not in the schoolyard. He was hiding in the house of his aunt Mevlüde (see paragraph 14 above). When the soldiers asked Aynur Kurt, his daughter, where her father was, Aynur told them he was at his aunt’s house. The soldiers went to Mevlüde’s house with Davut Kurt, another of the applicant’s sons, and took Üzeyir from the house. Üzeyir spent the night of 24–25 November 1993 with soldiers in the house of Hasan Kılıç. On the morning of 25 November 1993, the applicant received a message from a child that Üzeyir wanted some cigarettes. The applicant took cigarettes and found Üzeyir in front of Hasan Kılıç’s house surrounded by about ten soldiers and five to six village guards. She saw bruises and swelling on his face as though he had been beaten. Üzeyir told her that he was cold. She returned with his jacket and socks. The soldiers did not allow her to stay so she left. This was the last time she saw Üzeyir. The applicant maintains that there is no evidence that he was seen elsewhere after this time. 16. On 30 November 1993 the applicant applied to the Bismil public prosecutor, Ridvan Yıldırım, to find out information on the whereabouts of her son. On the same day, she received a response from Captain Izzet Cural at the provincial gendarmerie headquarters stating that it was supposed that Üzeyir had been kidnapped by the PKK (the Kurdish Workers’ Party). Captain Cural, who had proposed the plan for the operation in the village, replied in identical terms on 4 December 1993. The district gendarmerie commander noted on the bottom of the applicant’s petition of 30 November that Üzeyir had not been taken into custody and that he had been kidnapped by the PKK. 17. On 14 December 1993 the applicant applied to the National Security Court in Diyarbakır which replied that he was not in their custody records. On 15 December 1993 she contacted the Bismil public prosecutor again but was referred to the gendarmerie. Finally, on 24 December 1993 the applicant approached the Diyarbakır Human Rights Association for help and made a statement on the circumstances surrounding her son’s disappearance. 18. On 28 February 1994 Davut Karakoç (Üzeyir’s cousin), Arap Kurt (Üzeyir’s uncle and muhtar of the village) and Mehmet Kurt (another of Üzeyir’s cousins) were taken to the gendarmerie and questioned about what they knew of “Üzeyir Kurt who was abducted by representatives of the PKK terrorist organisation”. On 21 March 1994 the Bismil public prosecutor issued a decision of non-jurisdiction on the grounds that a crime had been committed by the PKK.