CASE OF GÜMÜŞOĞLU v. TURKEY
Violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 - Protection of property
Antonella Mularoni;Françoise Tulkens;Ireneu Cabral Barreto;Nona Tsotsoria
4. The applicants were born in 1955, 1935 and 1950 respectively and live in Hatay. 5. On various dates, the applicants bought plots of land (nos. 1233, 1230 and 1162 respectively) near the coast in Hatay. They each built a house there. 6. In 1995 the Treasury filed an action before the Samandağ Court of First Instance, requesting the annulment of the applicants’ title deeds to the land on the ground that they were located within the coastline. 7. On 16 December 1999 (nos. 40/02 and 41/02) and 9 December 1999 (42/02), the Samandağ Court of First Instance, relying, particularly, on expert reports, upheld the request of the Treasury and annulled the title deeds of the applicants to the plots of land. In its decisions, the court held that, pursuant to domestic law, coasts could not be subject to private ownership and that, therefore, the applicants could not rely on the argument that they had acted bona fides or on the fact that they had constructed buildings on the site. 8. On various dates the applicants appealed. In their petitions they submitted, inter alia, that the right to property - a human rights norm - was protected under the constitution and the domestic law, and that the domestic courts had deprived them of their property rights without proper examination and without a payment of compensation. On 3 October 2000 their appeals were dismissed by the Court of Cassation. 9. On various dates the applicants requested the Court of Cassation to rectify its decision. The Court of Cassation dismissed the applicants’ requests on 2 May 2001 (nos. 40/02 and 42/02) and 19 April 2001 (no. 41/02). These decisions were served on the applicants on 6 June 2001 (nos. 40/02 and 42/02) and 23 May 2001 (no. 41/02). 10. The relevant domestic law and practice in force at the material time are outlined in the Doğrusöz and Aslan v. Turkey judgment (no. 1262/02, § 16, 30 May 2006).