Communicated on 25 November 2016
THIRD SECTION
Application no. 22759/16
T.M. and Others against Armenia
and 4 other applications
(see list appended)
STATEMENT OF FACTS
The applicants are Azerbaijani nationals; in one application (no. 22773/16), one of the applicants is a Russian national. They are relatives of soldiers in the Azerbaijani Armed Forces who were killed during the military clashes that took place between 1 and 5 April 2016 close to the border between the “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic” and Azerbaijan (sometimes referred to as the “Four-Day War”).
The soldiers’ bodies were repatriated after the clashes. The applicants claim that, before their repatriation, the bodies had been mutilated or abused post-mortem. In three cases, body parts (earlobes or eyeballs) were missing.
COMPLAINTS
1. The applicants claim that they have suffered profound mental distress and anguish amounting to a violation of Article 3 of the Convention as a consequence of the mutilation or abuse of their relative’s body by Armenian forces.
2. Referring to the mutilation or abuse of their relative’s body and the failure of the Armenian authorities to return the cut-off body parts and the resultant inability to bury the body in a proper manner in accordance with Muslim tradition, the applicants complain that their right to respect for their private and family life under Article 8 has been violated.
3. In respect of the alleged violations of Articles 3 and 8, the applicants maintain that they have not had an effective remedy, in breach of Article 13. They state that, both before and during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Armenia has had a deliberate policy of hatred and ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijanis and that it is therefore impossible for an Azerbaijani to have an effective remedy in Armenia.
4. Finally, in conjunction with Articles 3, 8 and 13, the applicants claim, under Article 14, that the violations in the case are due to the ethnic and national origin of their dead relative and themselves.
QUESTIONS
1. Do the facts of which the applicants complain in the present cases fall under the jurisdiction of Armenia?
2. Do the applicants have at their disposal an effective domestic remedy for their Convention complaints, within the meaning of Article 13 of the Convention? If so, have they exhausted this remedy, as required by Article 35 § 1 (see further Chiragov and Others v. Armenia [GC], no. 13216/05, §§ 115-120, ECHR 2015)?
3. Has there been a violation of Article 3 of the Convention in regard to the mental anguish allegedly caused to the applicants by the circumstances related to their relative’s death and the recovery of his body (see, for instance, Akpınar and Altun v. Turkey, no. 56760/00, §§ 84-87, 27 February 2007)?
4. Has there been a violation of Article 8 of the Convention in regard to the applicants’ difficulties in recovering the allegedly severed parts of their relative’s body and/or burying the body according to their tradition (see, for instance, Maskhadova and Others v. Russia, no. 18071/05, § 208, 6 June 2013)?
5. Have the applicants suffered discrimination in the enjoyment of their Convention rights due to ethnicity or nationality or on any other ground contrary to Article 14 of the Convention?
6. Finally, the Government are requested to provide all relevant information and documents concerning the cases.
APPENDIX
List of applications
Case no.
Case name
Date of lodging
1.
22759/16
T.M. and Others v. Armenia
19/04/2016
2.
22773/16
N.T. and Others v. Armenia
19/04/2016
3.
30939/16
N.O. and T.O. v. Armenia
25/05/2016
4.
30940/16
G.G. and Others v. Armenia
25/05/2016
5.
30941/16
P.M. and Others v. Armenia
25/05/2016
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy