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[RAFAELLA]

CASE OF ELENI FOKA v. TURKEY
ECHR judgment finds Turkey quilty.


THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE
7. The applicant was born in 1947 and currently lives in Nicosia.
8. At the material time she was living alone in her family house in the village of Ayia Triada, Yialloussa, in the Karpas region of northern Cyprus. She was a teacher at the Greek-Cypriot elementary school in that village.
9. The parties disagree as to the facts of the case.
A. Applicant's version of the facts
10. In December 1994 the applicant went to spend the Christmas holidays with members of her family in southern Cyprus. On 13 January 1995 she was transported by a Red Cross bus with other “enclaved” Greek-Cypriots to the Ledra Palace crossing point in Nicosia. From there they were due to be taken to Ayia Triada by a bus driven by a Turkish settler.
11. At the barricade, which was guarded by Turkish and/or “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” (“TRNC”) police and customs officers, the applicant and the other five or six enclaved Greek-Cypriot women who were on the bus with her were searched. When the customs officers asked to search the applicant again, she refused, claiming that she had already been searched and nothing had been found. She was then taken to a small room near the barricade and was told that she would be searched by police officers. The applicant continued to refuse to submit to another search. The officials then tried to force the applicant into a small private car. She resisted and started shouting. The officials covered her mouth with their hands and started hitting her on her arms and feet in order to force her into the car. They pushed her in the car headfirst and then took hold of her legs. They managed to put her in the car with her legs upwards and feet pointing towards the roof.
12. She was subsequently taken to a building that appeared to be a police station. There her bag was thoroughly searched and whenever she tried to see what the officers were doing she was hit on the head and shoulders by a person whom she was able to identify from the discussions held among the officials present as a member of the Turkish secret service. She was then taken to an adjacent room where she was interrogated and mocked. When the interrogation was over, the bag was returned to her empty. The officers also kept part of her money – 120 Cyprus pounds (CYP) of the CYP 300 she had on her.
13. Afterwards, the officers took her in the same car to the bus that would have taken her to Ayia Triada. As she did not feel well, she asked to be allowed to return to southern Cyprus. However, the officers started to hit her once again and forced her into the bus. One of the women on the bus told them to “let her go or you will kill her”.
http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int////tkp197/vi ... hment=true

....The Court recalls that the overall control exercised by Turkey over the territory of northern Cyprus entails her responsibility for the policies and actions of the “TRNC” and that those affected by such policies or actions come within the “jurisdiction” of Turkey for the purposes of Article 1 of the Convention with the consequence that Turkey is accountable for violations of Convention rights which take place within that territory. It would not be consistent with such responsibility under the Convention if the adoption by the authorities of the “TRNC” of civil, administrative or criminal law measures, or their application or enforcement within that territory, were to be denied any validity or regarded as having no “lawful” basis in terms of the Convention.
84. The Court, accordingly, considers that when as in the instant case an act of the “TRNC” authorities is in compliance with laws in force within the territory of northern Cyprus, those acts should in principle be regarded as having a legal basis in domestic law for the purposes of the Convention (see, in this regard, the Djavit An v. Turkey judgment (no. 20652/92, 20 February 2003) in which the finding of a violation of the applicant's rights under Article 11 of the Convention was based on the absence of any laws or measures in the “TRNC” regulating the issuance of permits to Turkish Cypriots living in northern Cyprus to cross the green-line into southern Cyprus; see also, Adalı v. Turkey, no. 38187/97, §§ 273-274, 31 March 2005). This conclusion does not in any way put in doubt either the view adopted by the international community regarding the establishment of the “TRNC” or the fact that the government of the Republic of Cyprus remains the sole legitimate government of Cyprus (see Cyprus v. Turkey, cited above, §§ 14, 61, 90).