Turkey’s Constitutional Court has dismissed the application for the prosecution of public officials, saying, “There is no violation of the right to life,” whilst referring to the 33 people who died in the Suruç Massacre as “members of the organisation’s youth structure.”
Thirty three people died while dozens were injured in a suicide attack by ISIS on 20 July 2015 in the Suruç district of Turkey’s Şanlıurfa (Riha) province, which is across the border from Kobani. The group, consisting mainly of university students, were heading to Kobani, intending to join reconstruction activities after the city had survived a lengthy siege and attack by ISIS when the attack happened.
Thirteen people injured in the attack had filed an application to the Constitutional Court regarding the responsibility of public officials. In the reasoned decision published in the Legal Gazette, the Constitutional Court rejected the application of all 13 people on different grounds, stating that there was “no violation of the right to life.”
The Constitutional Court rejected eight of the applicants’ allegations because legal remedies had not been exhausted. Regarding four applicants, it also unanimously ruled that the allegations of violations of the rights to life were unacceptable due to a lack of evidence. The Constitutional Court also ruled that the application of one person would be dropped as the applicant had died in 2020.
The people who lost their lives in the massacre were described as “some alleged members of the youth structure of a terrorist organisation” by the Constitutional Court.
The Constitutional Court said there was no concrete evidence to support the applicants’ complaints, adding that “without providing any evidence, it appears that the security forces have been accused of systemic negligence against ISIS members by abstract claims.”