The Story of Huseyin Dogan

The story of Huseyin Dogan is one that is all too familiar in south-east Turkey. Huseyin resided in a small village in that part of Turkey and worked land that had been his father’s before him. During the 1990s that region of Turkey saw considerable unrest and the army forced many people from their lands and drove them out of their villages.

Huseyin Dogan was one of those who was dispossessed and he was forced to live in a small village in another region of Turkey. Around 2000 Huseyin filed a petition with Turkish administrative authorities to be allowed to return to his village but despite some promises being made by the authorities Huseyin was not allowed to return and further requests were ignored.

Huseyin and a number of others from his village then took their case to the European Court of Human Rights where he was successful in obtaining a judgment against the Turkish Government.