Ankara massare | Court finds the state negligent: ‘Right to life not protected’

In compliance with the Constitutional Court ruling based on civil inspectors’ report, an administrative court has concluded that the administration was at fault at the level of negligence in the October 10 Ankara massacre and accepted the request for damages.

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Ankara massare | Court finds the state negligent: ‘Right to life not protected’

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The Ankara 15th Administrative Court has finalized the application of Abdül Kadir Ünlü, who was wounded in the massacre in front of the Main Train Station in the capital city of Ankara on October 10, 2015. The court has concluded that the state was at fault at the level of negligence.

This is the first administrative court ruling which accepts that the state was negligent in the October 10 Ankara massacre.

As reported by Burcu Karakaş from Deutsche Welle (DW) Türkçe, the ruling came following the administrative trial that began upon the request of Abdül Kadir Ünlü, who was wounded in the massacre, for 500 thousand lira from the Interior Ministry in non-pecuniary damages.

In his petition, Ünlü said that security measures were not taken though there was intelligence about a suicide bomb attack and there was neglect of duty in the incident. However, the application was tacitly rejected. In 2018, he applied to the Constitutional Court on the grounds that his right to an effective remedy was violated as the amount of non-pecuniary damages was set low within the frame of the state's responsibility for social risk.

On September 15, 2021, the top court concluded that Ünlü's right to an effective remedy as per the Article 40 of the Constitution was violated with regards to his right to life by underlining that the civil inspectors assigned by the Ministry of Interior mentioned some negligent acts in the report on whether adequate security measures were taken before the massacre or not.

'Obligation to protect right to life not fulfilled'

Following this Constitutional Court ruling, the Ankara 15th Administrative Court held a retrial and examined the case file.

In its ruling, the administrative court has referred to the Constitutional Court ruling and to the report prepared by the inspectors.

It has noted that "the report prepared by the chief inspectors assigned by the Ministry of Interior mentioned that there were some negligent acts in the concrete case while there was intelligence coming to the Intelligence and Counterrorism Departments from different sources and this information should have been taken into account in planning the security measures."

Accordingly, the court has concluded that though it was not caused deliberately, the obligation to protect the right to life of Abdül Kadir Ünlü was not fulfilled and ruled that a non-pecuniary damages of 50 thousand lira and its accrued statutory interest shall be paid to Ünlü.

'The ruling is hope-inspiring'

Speaking to DW Türkçe about the ruling, lawyer Candan Dumrul has recalled that the court referred to the Constitutional Court ruling based on civil inspectors' report: "As this ruling essentially says, 'There is responsibility though there is negligence,' it says, 'The state is at fault'."

Noting that the ruling is important in that respect, Dumrul has explained, "Because it points to a finding of a fault going beyond the principle of social risk. We have been arguing this for 6 years and a court has finally documented this." She has found it "hope-inspiring" that the local court has ruled based on the Constitutional Court ruling and civil inspectors' report.

The Ankara Massacre

A suicide attack was launched against the Peace Rally in Ulus, Altındağ in the capital city of Ankara at around 10.04 a.m. on October 10, 2015.

While 69 people lost their lives at the scene of the incident, a total of 103 people and two attackers lost their lives.

After the bombs exploded, police officers used tear gas on the wounded and those who were trying to help them. As a result of this intervention, the wounded could not be referred to hospitals quickly and the survivors were also traumatized.

The scene of the incident was not placed under protection and crime scene investigation teams and prosecutors did not come to the scene immediately. The teams arrived after about one and a half hours and deputy public prosecutor after two and a half hours.

The indictment concerning the attack was approved on July 13, 2016. Accordingly, the order for the attack was given by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria's (ISIS) representative to Turkey, İlhami Balı.

It was stated in the indictment that it was the same people who organized the Suruç bombing, which had killed 33 people. Fourteen suspects including Balı face from 5,083 to 7,820 years in prison on the charges of "attempted murder multiple times" and "attempting to annihilate constitutional order". The trial started on November 7, 2016.

On August 3, 2018, the Ankara 4th Heavy Penal Court handed an aggravated life sentence for "violating the constitutional order" and 100 aggravated life sentences for "wilful murder" to nine defendants. They were also sentenced to 10,557 years in prison each for "attempted murder" (Abdulmubtalip Demir, Talha Güneş, Metin Akaltın, Yakup Şahin, Hakan Şahin, İbrahim Halil Alçay, Resul Demir, Hüseyin Tunç and Hacı Ali Durmaz). The trial of the fugitive defendants is continuing as their cases were separated.

The families of the deceased hold a commemoration ceremony on the 10th day of every month in front of the Train Station.

The peace rally participants who lost their lives in the massacre are: Abdülkadir Uyan, Metin Kürklü, Gökhan Akman, Orhan Işıktaş, Gülhan Karlı Elmascan, Yılmaz Elmascan, Nevzat Sayan, Bilgen Parlak, Hacı Kıvrak, Rıdvan Akgül, Rıdvan Akgül, Hacı Mehmet Şah Esin, Gökmen Dalmaç, Elif Kanlıoğlu, Hakan Dursun Akalın, Ercan Adsız, Ayşe Deniz, Berna Koç, Fatma Esen, Gülbahar Aydeniz, Eren Akın, Canberk Bakış, Tayfun Benol, Nizamettin Bağcı, Kasım Otur, Başak Sidar Çevik, Nilgün Çevik, Resul Yanar, Mehmet Ali Kılıç, Tekin Arslan, Sezen Vurmaz, Dilaver Karharman, Onur Tan, Umut Tan, Sarıgül Tüylü, Dilan Sarıkaya, Ali Kitapçı, İsmail Kızılçay, Muhammet Demir, Korkmaz Tedik, Veysel Atılgan, İbrahim Atılgan, Emine Ercan, Kübra Meltem Mollaoğlu, Meryem Bulut, Seyhan Yaylagül, Ebru Mavi, Ali Deniz Uzatmaz, Ziya Saygın, Vahdettin Özgan, Cemal Avşar, Ahmet Katurlu, Selim Örs, Azize Onat, Dicle Deli, Güney Doğan, Binali Korkmaz, Mehmet Zakir Karabulut, Leyla Çiçek, Metin Peşman, Mesut Mak, Adil Gür, Gökhan Gökbönü, Şebnem Yurtman, Osman Turan Bozacı, İdil Güneyi, Abdullah Erol, Mehmet Hayta, Özver Gökhan Arpaçay, Şirin Kılıçalp, Uygar Coşgun, Ahmed Alkhadi, Nurullah Erdoğan, Gözde Arslan, Aycan Kaya, Yunus Delice, Sevgi Öztekin, Mehmet Tevfik Dalgıç, Sevim Şinik, Emin Aydemir, Fatma Karabulut, Ramazan Tunç, Erol Ekici, Feyyat Deniz, Necla Duran, Osman Ervasa, Ramazan Çalışkan, Vedat Erkan, Abdülbari Şenci, Niyazi Büyüksütçü, Gazi Güray, Sabri Elmas, Erhan Avcı, Ümit Seylan, Serdar Ben, Nevzat Özbilgi, Hasan Baykara, Fatma Batur, Bedriye Batur, Ata Önder Atabay, Mustafa Budak, Ağa Bayar.

(AEK/SD)