KURT JUDGMENT OF 25 MAY 1998 12 village; and Mehmet Karabulut, who had seen the applicant’s son for the last time at Ali and Mevlüde Kurt’s house when the military operation began (see paragraph 29 above). While thirteen witnesses had been summoned to give evidence, only the above six witnesses actually appeared at the hearing and testified. 2. The approach to the evaluation of the evidence 46. The Commission approached its task in the absence of any findings of fact made by domestic courts and of any thorough judicial examination or other independent investigation of the events in question. In so proceeding, it assessed the evidence before it having regard, inter alia, to the conduct of the witnesses who were heard by the delegates at the hearing in Ankara and to the need to take into account when reaching its conclusions the coexistence of sufficiently strong, clear and concordant inferences or of similar unrebutted presumptions of fact. The Commission also made due allowance for the difficulties attached to assessing evidence obtained at the delegates’ hearing through interpreters and to the vulnerable position of villagers from south-east Turkey when giving evidence about incidents involving the PKK and the security forces. 3. The Commission’s findings of fact (a) The military operation in Ağıllı village 47. The Commission found that the written and oral evidence was largely consistent as regards the general course of events during the operation. It was established that the villagers were gathered in the schoolyard on the morning of 24 November and searches were then carried out of the villagers’ houses. During the clashes between the security forces and the terrorists who had entered the village the previous evening a number of houses including those of the applicant and her son were burned down. The villagers were again assembled in the schoolyard on 25 November. Three terrorists and one member of the security forces were killed in the clashes which occurred during the operation. Twelve villagers were taken into custody on 24 November and were released on 26 November. The security forces left the village late on 25 November. (b) The alleged taking into custody of the applicant’s son Üzeyir Kurt 48. The Commission noted that it was established that Üzeyir Kurt was present in the village of Ağıllı on the evening of 23 November 1993 and that the evidence pointed to his having stayed the night at the house of his uncle and aunt, Ali and Mevlüde Kurt, because of the clash between the PKK and the security forces.