5.  The applicants were born in 1975, 1970, 1972, 1967, 1963, 1972, 1961 and 1972 respectively, and live in the town of Şölen. 6.  The applicants were all employed as manual workers by the Şölen Town Council (hereafter “the Town Council”) until their contracts of employment were terminated by the Town Council on 29 April 1999. 7.  On various dates in 1999 the applicants brought proceedings before the Ergani Civil Court of First Instance against the Town Council and claimed their unpaid salaries and other pecuniary rights to which they were entitled under the applicable legislation. 8.  The applicants' claims were partly accepted by the Ergani Civil Court in its decisions adopted on 3 November 1999 and 30 December 1999. 9.  Between December 1999 and March 2000 the applicants initiated enforcement proceedings against the Town Council and sought to obtain the sums awarded to them by the Ergani Civil Court together with statutory interest. 10.  The sums claimed by the applicants were as follows:
 
Application no.
Applicant
Amount in Turkish liras
Approximate amount in Euros
42894/04
Mehmet Arat
791,793,180
1,440
42904/04
Haci[2] Atsız
1,481,705,734
2,700
42905/04
Mehmet Atsız (son of Hakim)
3,670,205,743 
6,680
42906/04
Edip Çelik
3,299,888,955
6,000
42907/04
Ramazan Alaca
3,409,954,582
6,200
42908/04
Erdal Güneş
976,729,112
1,780
42909/04
Mehmet Atsız
4,918,063,504
8,950
42910/04
Mehmet Can
2,792,467,421
5,080 11.  In the course of the enforcement proceedings, the applicants unsuccessfully attempted to recover their monies from the Town Council's bank accounts at the State owned Ziraat Bank. The bank refused to make the payments on the ground that the monies deposited there by the Town Council had been allocated to a special fund earmarked for public services. Following this, the Town Council transferred all their monetary assets to the special fund to circumvent the Ergani Civil Court's decisions. 12.  At the time of the adoption of the present judgment the applicants' attempts at recovering their monies were still continuing.