SELÇUK AND ASKER JUDGMENT OF 24 APRIL 1998 15 61. The Court notes the above finding of the Commission and observes, furthermore, that both applicants signed forms indicating that they wished to take part in the proceedings before the Court and appointing the lawyers who would represent them. In these circumstances, it finds no cause to doubt that the applications to the Commission were valid and genuine expressions of the right of individual petition under Article 25 of the Convention. It therefore dismisses this preliminary objection. B. Non-exhaustion of domestic remedies 62. The Government contended that, despite Mr Asker’s claims, he could not have made any petition to the District Governor because, had he done so, his petition would have been recorded and he would have been provided with a registry number and an acknowledgment of receipt, neither of which he had been able to produce. In truth, neither of the applicants had made any attempt to raise their Convention grievances before a domestic authority, despite the fact that both civil and criminal-law remedies were available. There were numerous decided cases to the effect that the State would be held liable for compensation where its agents had destroyed property. The Government cited by way of example the case of Nizamettin Ağırtmış, who was awarded compensation by the Van Administrative Court following the burning of his abandoned house by soldiers (decision no. 1996/771 on file no. 1993/427, 27 December 1996). It followed that the applicants had not done all that could be expected of them to exhaust domestic remedies as required by Article 26 of the Convention. 63. The applicants contended that both Mr Asker and Mr Memiş had informed the District Governor approximately ten days after the houses had been burned down (see paragraph 16 above). Since Mr Asker’s petition received no response, Mrs Selçuk did not think it worthwhile to submit a petition herself. Furthermore, they maintained that domestic remedies were generally ineffective in relation to complaints such as their own. 64. The Commission, in its decisions on admissibility (see paragraph 47 above) noted that the Government had not submitted any observations as to the admissibility of Mr Asker’s application. According to its usual practice in these circumstances, the application could not therefore be declared inadmissible for non-exhaustion of domestic remedies. In the case of Mrs Selçuk, the Commission determined that there were no effective remedies which she should be required to exhaust, on the basis that, while the Government had outlined a general scheme of remedies, they had produced no concrete examples of their working in cases comparable to those of the applicants.