ECHR: murdered soldier posed no threat
By Stefanos Evripidou
THE EUROPEAN Court of Human Rights yesterday charged Turkey with violating the right to life in two separate cases brought by Greek Cypriots against Turkey.
In the first case, concerning the application of Kallis and Androulla Panayi against Turkey, the Court ruled there was a violation of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human rights and awarded 35,000 to each in respect of non-pecuniary damages and 9,888.30 for costs and expenses.
The two took Turkey to Strasburg after their 19-year-old son serving in the National Guard, Stelios Panayi, was killed in June 1996 by Turkish occupation forces after entering the UN buffer zone while off duty and unarmed. Panayi had crossed the buffer zone to swap hats with a Turkish Cypriot soldier. When members of the UN Peace Keeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) attempted to reach him to save his life, the Turkish armed forces fired shots, preventing him from receiving medical treatment, resulting in his death.
The Turkish government disputed the facts presented by the applicants, claiming that Panayi was fully armed, making gestures by hand and calling the Turkish Cypriot soldiers to go over to him.'
Disputing Turkeys allegations that Panayi was armed, the Court ruled that although Stelios had been wearing uniform and hence one could have assumed that he might have carried a gun, that fact alone could not in the circumstances have justified the shots fired at him.
The Turkish soldiers had been in complete control of the area and Stelios behaviour had not posed a threat to them; consequently the soldiers would have been able to stop him without jeopardising his life, said the ruling.
The Court found unanimously that Stelios Panayi had been killed by representatives of the Turkish authorities who had used excessive force, not justified by the circumstances of the case, in violation of Article 2.
The second case concerns Georgia Andreou, now deceased, a British national who was shot by Turkish soldiers on August 14, 1996, during the killing of Solomos Solomou who was shot five times while trying to climb up a Turkish flag-pole. Solomou was attending the demonstration following the funeral of Tassos Isaak who had been kicked and beaten to death by Turkish Cypriot policemen and demonstrators three days earlier at a motorcycle rally.
Although standing outside the buffer zone, Andreou sustained a serious gunshot wound to her abdomen when Turkish and Turkish Cypriot forces opened fire on Solomou and the crowd.
According to two high-ranking UNFICYP members, uniformed Turkish or Turkish-Cypriot military personnel were seen kneeling down and firing in the direction of the demonstrators inside the UN buffer zone.
As a result, two British UNFICYP soldiers and two Greek Cypriot civilians (one of whom was the applicant) were hit by gunfire. According to the ECHR, this version of events was also confirmed in a report by the UN Secretary-General.
The indiscriminate and unwarranted firing into the crowd which was gathering inside and outside the buffer zone had put numerous lives at risk. The fact that the applicant had not been killed was fortuitous, said the Court.
The Court considered that, irrespective of whether or not the soldiers had actually intended to kill Andreou, she had been the victim of conduct which by its very nature had put her life at risk, even though, in the event, she had actually survived. Turkey was once again found guilty of violating Article 2, the right to life.
Anreous husband and children were subsequently awarded 585.68 in pecuniary damages, 40,000 in non-pecuniary damages and 10,000 in costs and expenses.
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