Abdullah YUCEL and Others v Turkey - 40056/04

The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting on 16 December 2008 as a Chamber composed of:

Françoise Tulkens, President, Ireneu Cabral Barreto, Vladimiro Zagrebelsky, Danutė Jočienė, Dragoljub Popović, András Sajó, Işıl Karakaş, judges, and Sally Dollé, Section Registrar ,

The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicants, may be summarised as follows.

The ownership of a plot of land in Istanbul which had been registered under the name of the applicants was the subject matter of a dispute before the Çatalca Land Registry Court ( Tapulama Mahkemesi ) between the applicants and the State as well as a number of other individuals. The proceedings, which started in 1963, ended on 7 May 1996 by a judgment delivered in favour of the applicants.

At the meanwhile the General Directorate of the State Property ( Arsa Ofisi Genel Müdürlüğü ) decided on 22 January 1986 to expropriate the disputed land. In compliance with the then existing procedure the expropriation of the land and the payment of 31,606,400 Turkish liras (TRL) 1 in return was ordered by the Çatalca Civil Court on 18 November 1987. The parties did not appeal. The decision became final and the compensation amount was deposited in a bank account pending the proceedings before the Çatalca Land Registry Court.