KURT JUDGMENT OF 25 MAY 1998 26 value of the statement taken from him by gendarmes could be tested in an adversarial setting. 97. Furthermore, the Government’s contention that the applicant’s son had either been kidnapped by the PKK or had left the village to team up with the terrorists was duly considered by the Commission. However, support for this was mainly based on statements taken from villagers by the very gendarmes who were the subject of the applicant’s complaint (see paragraph 38 above) and these statements could properly be considered by the Commission to be of minimum evidential value. 98. The Court recalls that under its settled case-law the establishment and verification of the facts are primarily a matter for the Commission (Articles 28 § 1 and 31 of the Convention). While the Court is not bound by the Commission’s findings of fact and remains free to make its own appreciation in the light of all the material before it, it is only in exceptional circumstances that it will exercise its powers in this area (see, for example, the McCann and Others v. the United Kingdom judgment of 27 September 1995, Series A no. 324, p. 50, § 169; the Aksoy v. Turkey judgment of 18 December 1996, Reports 1996-VI, p. 2272, § 38; the Aydın v. Turkey judgment of 25 September 1997, Reports 1997-VI, pp. 1888–89, § 70; and the Menteş and Others v. Turkey judgment of 28 November 1997, Reports 1997-VIII, pp. 2709–10, § 66). 99. Having regard to the above considerations which are based on its own careful assessment of the evidence and the transcripts of the delegates’ hearing, the Court is not persuaded that there exist any exceptional circumstances which would compel it to reach a conclusion different from that of the Commission. It considers that there is a sufficient factual and evidentiary basis on which the Commission could properly conclude, beyond reasonable doubt, that the applicant did see her son outside Hasan Kılıç’s house on the morning of 25 November 1993, that he was surrounded by soldiers and village guards at the time and that he has not been seen since. B. Article 2 100. The applicant maintained that a number of factors militated in favour of a finding that her son was the victim of violations of Article 2 of the Convention, which stipulates: “1. Everyone's right to life shall be protected by law. No one shall be deprived of his life intentionally save in the execution of a sentence of a court following his conviction of a crime for which this penalty is provided by law. 2. Deprivation of life shall not be regarded as inflicted in contravention of this Article when it results from the use of force which is no more than absolutely necessary: