Slayt 1

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REPARATION OF DAMAGES ARISING FROM TERROR AND
FIGHT AGAINST TERROR DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF
PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATIONS
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The Law no.5233 on the Reparation of Damages
Resulting from Terror and Fight Against Terror
took effect on 27.07.2004, and the Regulation
relating to the execution of this legislation on
20.10.2004 The law amending the Law 5233
mentioned above took effect on 3 January 2006.
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The Law no. 5233 is intended to peacefully
settle for the damages of real or legal persons
resulting from acts covered by Articles 1, 3 and
4 of Law no. 3713 on Fight Against Terror or
activities carried out for fighting terror.
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• DAMAGES TO BE COVERED PEACEFULLY
• All damages to animals, trees, crops and other
  moveable or immoveable property.
• Damages incurred in cases of injury, mutilation
  and death as well as costs of medical
  intervention and funeral.
• Damages incurred as a result of lack of access
  to property, which in turn derives from
  anti-terror activities.

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ASSESSMENT OF DAMAGES Damages to be covered
under this law are determined, either directly
through commissions or by group of experts with
due consideration of statements made by
applicants information and documentation
supplied by judiciary, administrative and
military authorities course of events leading to
damage including the neglect or any fault of the
applicant, if any and in line with principles of
fairness and prevailing economic circumstances.
In assessments of damage to real property,
the principles of assessment specified in Article
11 of the Law on Expropriation are applied
proportionately.
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• The applicant files a petition together with
  all relevant information and documents describing
  the course of events and including data which may
  be useful in assessing the damage incurred.
• Furthermore, in case the commission concerned
  finds it necessary, it asks for necessary
  information and documents that are needed to
  assess damages from judiciary, administrative and
  military authorities.

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• UNCOVERABLE DAMAGES
• Damages already covered by the State by
  allocation of dwelling or land or through other
  ways.
• Damages covered by court decision.
• Damages ruled on by the ECtHR or incurred upon
  reparation as settled amicably under the
  provisions of the Convention.

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• Damages suffered as a result of economic and
  social causes other than terror and damages
  incurred by those voluntarily leaving their
  places for reasons not related to security
  concerns.
• Damages resulting from deliberate acts of persons
  concerned.
• Damages incurred by persons as a result of crimes
  covered by Articles 1, 3 and 4 of the law no.
  3713 and who have been convicted for helping and
  sheltering perpetrators of terrorist acts.
• This law is not applicable to those who are
  presently being tried for acts mentioned above
  until final court ruling.

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• PAYMENTS TO BE DEDUCED FROM
  COMPENSATION PAYABLE
• That part of damage already covered with the
  contributions of projects implemented by public
  agencies or professional organisations which has
  the status of public agency,
• Parts of demolished property that the victim can
  still benefit from in various ways,
• Compensations already paid by insurance
  companies, public agencies or social security
  schemes,
• Costs of medical treatment and funeral,
• Assistance made through the Social Assistance
  and Solidarity Fund specifically to compensate
  damages covered by the present law,
• In calculating amounts to be deduced as such, by
  applying annual revaluation rates specified in
  the law no. 213 on Tax Procedures. This provision
  is not applicable in cases where damages are to
  be covered in kind.

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• FORMATION OF DAMAGE ASSESSMENT COMMISSIONS
• Upon applications made under the law, a
  commission is established in each province within
  ten days with the approval of Governor.
•             
• Commission is chaired by a Deputy Governor and
  its members are designated by Governor from among
  civil servants at least in the status of Branch
  Director from the following governmental sectors
• Finance,
• Public works and settlement,
• Agriculture and rural affairs,
• Health,
• Industry and commerce, and
• A lawyer from local bar association to be
  designated by the board of the bar association.
•             
• The chair and members of the commission are
  re-designated in January each year. Local bar
  association informs Governorate about the bar
  member to take part in commission until the end
  of December each year. Any member may be
  re-designated for a second term.

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TERMINATION OF COMMISSION MEMBERSHIP Any
membership in commission may be terminated upon
the approval of the Governor in such cases as
change in the place of duty, illness, accident
and any other incapability precluding the
performance of commission work. The governor
designates another member to fill the vacancy.
             In case any of above mentioned
situations is valid for the lawyer member of the
commission, the Governor informs the bar
association concerned and the bar association
designates another member for the approval of the
Governor.              In case there are too
many applications, more than one commission may
be established in a given province upon the
approval of the Governor.
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• QUORUM IN MEETINGS AND RULINGS
• The Commission gathers and rules with simple
  majority. Abstention is not allowed while
  decisions are taken. Any opposing member writes
  his/her objections and undersigns it.

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PAYMENTS TO COMMISSION MEMBERS The head and
members of the commission are paid for each
session an amount obtained by multiplying the
indicative figure 500 by public servants salary
coefficient for a period not extending over 6
months. For each session 500 x
0.0426521,325 YTL These payments are subject
to no deduction with the exception of stamp duty.

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• APPLICATIONS
• Applications are made to the Governorate of the
  province where
• Damage is incurred or
• Event leading to damage took place
• by persons suffering the damage, their legal
  inheritors or legal representatives within a
  period of sixty days following the information of
  such damage and, in any case, within one year
  following the event leading to damage
• Any application missing these deadlines is
  dismissed. In cases of injury or any
  hospitalisation the period of time spent in
  health institutions is excluded from calculations
  of time prescription.

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• APPLICATION AND TIME LIMITATION FOR DECISIONS
• Applications are finalised within a period of
  six months starting from the date of application.
  If necessary, the Governor may extend this time
  period for 3 months.
• Those who suffered damages in the period
  19.7.1987 and 27.07.2004 when the law took effect
  may apply within a period of one year. The period
  of application was extended for one more year
  starting from 03.01.2006 when the amending law
  took effect. Applications in this context are
  decided on within 2 years starting from the date
  of application.
• Public servants suffering damage have the same
  right to apply under the law and their cases are
  finalised within one year.

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APPLICATIONS VIA OTHER UNITS Applications made
to other governorates than the Governorate
concerned, external missions of Turkey,
ministries and other governmental organisations
are referred to the Governorate concerned. In
such cases, the date of application is deemed as
the date when relevant documents reach the
Governorate concerned. ABSTENTION The chair
and members of the Commission cannot take part in
commission sessions where damages incurred by
themselves, their spouses, relatives to the third
degree or persons they guard or represent are
addressed. CURRENT EXPENSES Secretary
services of commissions are delivered by
provincial private administrations and
corresponding expenditures are covered by the
budget of the Ministry and/or provincial private
administration.
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• EXPERTS
• Commissions are entitled to ask for
  information, documentation and assistance from
  other governmental organisations regarding the
  content of applications as well as designate
  experts from among various governmental agencies
  other than judiciary, military and security. Any
  personnel from governmental agencies designated
  as such will give priority to commission work.
• Commission members cannot be designated as
  experts.
• FEES PAYABLE TO EXPERTS
• Commissions may decide to pay experts they
  designate. Payments to these experts are
  calculated by taking 500 as indicative figure for
  each application file if they are from
  governmental agencies and 1,000 for other experts
  and multiplying these indicative figures by
  public employees monthly salary coefficient.
  Hence, amounts payable are
• For public employees (500 x 0.0426521.325
  YTL),
• Other persons (1000 x 0.04265 42.65 YTL)

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  PER DIEM PAYABLE TO COMMISSION MEMBERS
Commission members taking part in inspections
carried out in places other than their regular
service locations as well as expert witnesses are
entitled to per diem under the law no. 6245. In
determining the per diem payable to the lawyer
members of commissions, per diem payable to a
civil servant in 1st degree is taken as basis.
These payments are subject to no deduction with
the exception of stamp duty.
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COMPENSATIONS In cases of injury, physical
disability and death, first the amount of 298.55
is found by multiplying the indicative figure
7000 by monthly salary coefficient 0.04265
a) Cases of injury, One-tenth of above
stated figure (298.55) is multiplied by the
number of days that the injured person was unable
to attend his/her work as testified by authorised
health report and the resulting figure is paid as
compensation. However, compensation payable in
this context cannot be more than 6 times the
figure 298.55. EXAMPLE Case of a person with
medical report stating that his/her situation
precludes normal daily work for 7 days
7000 X 0,04265 298.55 298,55 / 10
29.855 29.855 X 7 208.98 YTL (Payable
as compensation)
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• b) Physical disability Decision is made
  according to Annex D to the Regulation specifying
  the degree of loss in working ability.
• EXAMPLE A person is considered as in 2nd degree
  harm losing 68 of his/her working ability
• 7000 X 0,04265 298.55
• 298,55 X 35 10.449,25 YTL (Payable as
  compensation)

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c) In cases of persons deceased, their legal
inheritors are payable 50 times the amount
mentioned above 7000 X 0,04265 298.55
298,55 X 50 14.927,50 YTL Provisions
of the Turkish Civil Code applicable to legal
inheritors are also applied in these cases. In
calculating amounts of cash payments, indicative
figures and coefficients valid at the date of
Ministers or Governors approval for payment are
taken as basis.         In the context of the
present law, no recourse can be made to the State
for payables to damaged persons by real or
private law legal persons.
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AMICABLE SETTLEMENT The commission sends the
claimant a draft document of amicable settlement
stating the net amount payable together with an
invitation. This invitation specifies that
the claimant receiving this draft has to apply
for signing it within 30 days and otherwise
he/she will be deemed as having rejected also
stating that the applicant is entitled to apply
to a court for settlement. In case the
claimant accepts the document of amicable
settlement, the document is undersigned by the
applicant or his/her legal representative and the
chair of the commission. In case amicable
settlement is not accepted or deemed rejected
according to the second paragraph, a record of
dispute is taken and sent to relevant parties.
If amicable settlement cannot be reached,
parties are entitled to seek judiciary processes.

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• Compensation specified in amicable settlement
  is paid, upon the approval of the Governor,
  within 3 months from the special budget
  allocation of the Ministry.
• The Ministry may decide that in kind or in cash
  compensations over YTL 50,000 should be made with
  the approval of the Minister. However, the
  Ministry has yet taken no decision to this end.
  So long as no such decision is taken by the
  Ministry, payments over YTL 50,000 will continue
  to be made by respective governorates.
• The State reserves its right to recourse in
  such payments.

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All applications, statements, documents to be
arranged, procedures to be carried out by
official authorities and notaries as well as aids
and donations made for the implementation of this
law are exempt from all taxes and duties.
Notifications to be made under this law are
subject to law no. 7201 on notifications. It is
essential that all notifications are made
personally by public servants.
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AYDIN IÇYER RULING OF ECHR In its ruling
dated 17.01.2006, the European Court of Human
Rights (ECHR) rejected the case of Aydin Içyer.
In its ruling, the Court declared that the Law
no. 5233 was an effective domestic remedy, in
both theory and implementation, for compensation
of damages resulting from terror and fight
against terror. The Court further added that the
claimant should first appeal to assessment
commissions in seeking reparation for lack of
access to his property. The ruling of the Court
also mentioned that the Turkish Government
devised various remedies, including the law no.
5233, to respond to complaints of citizens
regarding losses deriving from lack of access to
property that these remedies were introduced as
solution to cases pending before the Court and
that the latest legislation indeed provided
effective domestic remedy.
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• ALI FIDAN
• BRANCH DIRECTOR
• DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATIONS