8.  The applicants were both born in 1956 and they are currently living in Istanbul. 9.  The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows. 10.  Until 18 September 1994 the applicants lived in the Dirimpınar village of the Malazgirt district in the province of Muş. 11.  On an unspecified date, while the applicant Ramazan Kınay was serving a prison sentence in Diyarbakır prison, the mayor of the village (muhtar) told the villagers and the applicant Makbule Kınay that their houses would be burned by security forces. Following this information, some of the villagers removed their belongings from their houses. 12.  On 18 September 1995, at about 8 p.m., security forces, composed of 50-60 village guards, special team members and gendarmes, arrived in the applicants’ village. Some members of the security forces conducted a search of the applicants’ house. They seized the valuables belonging to Makbule Kınay. They manhandled and insulted her as well as her three children. Then they poured gas on the applicants’ house and set it on fire together with its contents. 13.  Makbule Kınay recognised the village guards who had burned her house as being from the Nurettin village of the Malazgirt district. 14.  Following the burning of her house, Makbule Kınay moved to her relatives’ house in the Bulanık district of Muş. She then moved to İstanbul as a result of intimidation by the security forces. She later learnt that 75 tons of barley had been collected from their fields by the village guards. 15.  On 15 March 1995 Ramazan Kınay was conditionally released. On 30 November 1995 Ramazan Kınay filed a petition with the Üsküdar Chief Public Prosecutor’s office in İstanbul for submission to the Public Prosecutor’s office in Malazgirt. In his petition, he complained about the burning of his and his relatives’ houses by village guards. He requested permission to return to his village and compensation for the losses. 16.  No investigation was carried out into the applicants’ complaints. 17.  The applicant Ramazan Kınay was convicted of membership of the PKK. He was serving a prison sentence at the time of the alleged events. 18.  The authorities carried out an investigation into the applicants’ allegations of destruction of their property and their forced eviction from the village. 19.  On 5 December 1997 the Malazgirt Gendarme Commander took statements from the mayor of the Dirimpınar village. In his statements, the latter denied the applicants’ allegations. He stated that there were families still living in the village and that the applicant Makbule Kınay moved out of the village of her own free will. 20.  According to the records of the Land Registry, the applicants are the owners of 10,56 acres of land. 21.  Subsequent to the investigation carried out by the authorities, it was understood that, at the relevant time, there were no village guards or operations being carried out in the region.