THE European Court of Human Rights yesterday condemned Turkey for the first time in a case involving fighting between Turkish armed forces and Kurdish separatist guerrillas.
The court ruled that Turkey had violated the European Convention on Human Rights because its forces had destroyed the village of Kelekci in the Kurdish province of Diyarbakir in 1992 and 1993.
Seven Turkish Kurds had alleged that soldiers wrecked the village after Kurdish guerrillas attacked paramilitary Turkish gendarmes.
Ankara argued that the village was destroyed by guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The court ruled that the "deliberate setting alight of the plaintiffs' houses was a grave violation of their right to respect of their family life, home and property".
It was the first time the court, whose jurisdiction takes precedence over national courts, had heard a case involving Kurdish charges of human rights violations by Turkey.
. The Turkish Foreign Minister, Ms Tansu Ciller, has postponed a visit to Jordan for the second time owing to the crisis in northern Iraq, a foreign ministry statement said. Ms Ciller preferred "not to leave Ankara at this stage due to the developments taking place in the region".
Ankara and Amman allow US aircraft to patrol no fly zones over northern Iraq from their territory. Jordan is one of the few Arab countries that has not criticised Turkey for its plans to set up a 10 km deep security cordon inside northern Iraq to combat Kurdish guerrillas.