THE son of the Turkish Cypriot family murdered on the Nicosia-Larnaca highway in January 2005 warned Cyprus and Turkey yesterday they would be sharing the dock at the European Court of Human Rights for their joint failure to bring the killers to justice.
The statement came two days after an attempt was made on the son’s own life on Sunday morning.
Kibris reported yesterday that Mehmet Guzelyurtlu was attacked while he was in the garage of his house in the north. Assailants fired on him, wounding him on his little finger. According to the paper, Turkish Cypriot police found six empty cartridges from different guns at the scene.
Guzelyurtlu was taken to hospital and kept in for observation.
“The attempt on Mehmet’s life was entirely predictable, and predicted,” the statement said.
He said the suspects in the killing of his parents and 15-year old sister were well known to the Turkish Cypriot authorities and were living openly in the north, despite the fact that Greek Cypriot police say they have DNA evidence linking five of the eight suspects to the January 2005 murder.
Turkish Cypriot banker Elmas ‘Guzelyurtlu’ Ali, 52, his 50-year-old wife, Zerrin, and 15-year-old daughter Ayul were found next to the family’s car. All three had been shot in the head at close range. They were wearing their pyjamas and coats, indicating that had been kidnapped from their home and driven to the crime scene before being murdered.
Guzelyurtlu was the owner of the Everest Bank in the north, the first of several banks to collapse in 2000, with around 12,000 people losing their savings.
The eight suspects in the case arrested in the north were left free due to lack of evidence, because the government refused to hand over evidence to the north and the Turkish Cypriot side refused to deliver the suspects to the south, where the crime had been committed.
“The suspects have been allowed to get away with the worst ever murder in Cyprus peacetime,” said Guzelyurtlu’s statement. Referring to the lack of co-operation in the case, he said: “Each side refuses to talk to each other, let alone co-operate.”
“It’s about time the leaders on all sides realise that there are higher unwritten laws which they must obey, particularly when it comes to the murder of a child, and to put to one side their petty squabbles over the Cyprus problem or else they will share the dock at the European Court of Human Rights.”
Guzelyurtlu said he and other relatives of the slain family were applying to the ECHR against Cyprus and Turkey, “the country responsible for violations of human rights in the TRNC”, for breach of their right to have the murder of members of their family properly investigated.
“The Republic of Cyprus has to request, directly or indirectly the extradition of the named suspects residing in the TRNC and provide the evidence against the suspects,” his statement said.
Either that or Turkey arranges for them to be tried there, he said.
“It’s as simple as that, and is no more than what each country is required to do under the 1957 European Convention on Extradition.”
