First Lawsuit, Albeit Rejected, Against Land Mines in Turkey

The plaintiff, Süleyman Yıldız, complaint that 10,557 land mines deployed on the outskirts of his village of residence threatened the lives of villagers and domestic animals. The prosecutor rejected the case, saying that the ten year official deadline for land mine removal according to Ottowa Treaty has not been reached yet.

The case, albeit rejected, set a landmark in the prosecution against land mines in Turkey.

The Ottawa Treaty or the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, officially known as the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, aims at eliminating anti-personnel land mines (AP-mines) around the world. In March 2004, Turkey signed the convention which required the removal of all land mines in Turkey's territories within 10 years.

The lawsuit also reminded of land mine casualties including a villager man and several cattle and claimed that land mines abused right to life, circulation freedom and propriety rights.

Plaintiff attorney Barış Yıldırım complaint that it would impossible to remove all land mines in be year since the official deadline was in March 2014. "Most of land mines were long-lived and they have been redeployed from their original locations. Authorities are also reluctant to remove the land mines whose whereabouts are known as well. Once people who were forced to migrate from the area will return, there will be serious problems."

Roughly 1 million land mines under soil worldwide

Some of striking facts from Land Mine Monitor 2012 report prepared by the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines were listed as follows:

* In 2004, prior to Ottowa Convention, Turkey's territories contained almost 16.000 anti-personnel mines. Turkey only removed 900 of those in ten years.

* No improvements in land mines either. In 2004, Turkey officially had 977.163 land mines deployed in its territories. By 2012, only 244 of them were removed.

* No information could be gathered concerning remaining cluster bombs or other explosives.

* No official authority related to removal of land mine has been established yet.

* No statistics is available concerning the estimated number of human casualties due to land mine explosions. No improvements have been made on support and services to land mine victims. (NV)