KURT JUDGMENT OF 25 MAY 1998
20
no violation of Articles 14 and 18 of the Convention (unanimously); and
that Turkey had failed to comply with its obligations under Article 25 § 1 of
the Convention (unanimously). The full text of the Commission’s opinion
and of the dissenting opinion contained in the report is reproduced as an
annex to this judgment 1 .
FINAL SUBMISSIONS TO THE COURT
74. The applicant requested the Court in her memorial to find that the
respondent State was in violation of Articles 2, 3, 5, 14 and 18 of the
Convention on account of her son’s “disappearance” and that she herself is a
victim of a violation of Articles 3 and 13. She further contended that the
respondent State had failed to comply with its obligations under Article 25
§ 1. She requested the Court to award her and her son just satisfaction under
Article 50.
75. The Government, for their part, requested the Court in their
memorial to rule that the case was inadmissible having regard to the absence
of a valid application. Alternatively, they argued that the applicant’s
complaints were not substantiated. At the hearing the Government also
maintained that the case should be declared inadmissible on account of the
applicant’s failure to exhaust domestic remedies.
AS TO THE LAW
I.
THE GOVERNMENT’S FIRST PRELIMINARY OBJECTION
76. The Government maintained that the applicant had never intended to
lodge a complaint against the authorities before the Convention institutions.
Her sole concern in contacting the public prosecutor and other officials (see
paragraphs 39–43 above) was to ascertain the fate of her son and to
eliminate the possibility that he might be in detention following the military
operation in her village. Her quest for information on her son’s whereabouts
was subsequently exploited by the Diyarbakır Human Rights Association
whose representatives fabricated allegations against the State and
manipulated the applicant into impugning the authorities for the
disappearance of her son. They insisted that the applicant had on
1. Note by the Registrar. For practical reasons this annex will appear only with the printed
version of the judgment (in Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1998), but a copy of the
Commission’s report is obtainable from the registry.