Communicated on 4 December 2017

SECOND SECTION

Application no. 38275/11 Hüsnü YILDIZ and Sakine YILDIZ against Turkey lodged on 28 July 2011

SUBJECT MATTER OF the CASE

The application concerns the killing by soldiers of the first applicant ’ s son and the second applicant ’ s brother Ali Y ı ld ı z in 1997. The applicants allege that they did not become aware of the killing until a newspaper article published in 2011 reported that 19 persons had been killed in 1997 during a military operation and that the bodies had been buried by the authorities without informing the families of the deceased. Subsequently, acting on requests from the applicants and a number of other families, the authorities exhumed a number of bodies from the place where they had been buried. One of the bodies was identified as the applicant ’ s relative Ali Yıldız . The applicants made an official complaint to the prosecutor and alleged that their relative had been killed unlawfully. They asked the prosecutor to prosecute and punish those responsible for the killing. Their request was rejected by the prosecutor.

The applicants complain that the killing of their relative and the authorities ’ failure, firstly, to inform them and, secondly, to carry out a proper examination of the killing constituted a breach of their rights under Articles 2, 3, 8 and 13 of the Convention.

QUESTIONS

1. Have the applicants complied with the six-month time-limit laid down in Article 35 § 1 of the Convention as regards their complaints concerning the killing of their relative in 1997 and the effectiveness of the investigations conducted between the date of killing in 1997 and the date of their submission of their petition to the prosecutor on 28 January 2011? In this connection, what steps were taken by the applicants during that period in order to find out what had happened to their relative?

2. Has the applicants ’ relative ’ s right to life, ensured by Article 2 of the Convention, been violated in the present case?

In particular, did the applicants ’ relative ’ s death result from a use of force which was absolutely necessary and strictly proportionate to the achievement of the aims set out in the subparagraphs of Article 2 of the Convention?

3. Having regard to the procedural protection of the right to life (see Salman v. Turkey [GC], no. 21986/93, § 104, ECHR 2000-VII), were the investigations in the present case instigated by the domestic authorities in 1997 and then in 2011 in breach of Article 2 of the Convention?

The Government are requested to submit documentary evidence in support of their replies to the above and to submit a copy of the files of the investigations instigated in 1997 and in 2011.

APPENDIX

1. Sakine YILDIZ is a Turkish national who was born in 1950, lives in Istanbul and is represented by Oya Aslan , a lawyer practising in Istanbul.

2. Hüsnü YILDIZ is a Turkish national who was born in 1964, lives in Istanbul and is also represented by Oya Aslan .