CoE ministers call on Turkey to compensate the families of Missing

The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers has called on the Turkish authorities to abide by their international obligations and pay the “just satisfaction” awarded by the European Court of Human Rights to relatives of nine Greek Cypriots who disappeared during the Turkish invasion.

In September 2009, the European court found Turkey to have violated the European Convention on Human Rights due its failure to conduct effective investigations into the fate of the people involved and the inhuman treatment of their relatives.

The court ruled that Turkey was to pay a total of 108,000 euros in damages and 72,000 euros in costs and expenses to the relatives by December 18, 2009.

In an interim resolution adopted this week, the committee expressed profound concern that prolonged delays in paying the just satisfaction not only deprived the victims from receiving compensation but was also in flagrant disrespect of Turkey’s international obligations as a member of the Council of Europe and party to the European Convention on Human Rights.

The committee decided to resume its consideration of this case, together with the related Cyprus v. Turkey interstate case, at its March 2023 meeting to supervise the execution of ECHR judgements.