PROCEDURE

The case originated in an application (no. 22261/03) against the Republic of Turkey lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by a Turkish national, Mr M. Ali Durmaz (“the applicant”), on 7 May 2003.

The applicant was represented by Mr M. Birlik, a lawyer practising in Şanlıurfa. The Turkish Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent.

On 14 September 2007 the Court decided to give notice of the application to the Government. Under the provisions of Article 29 § 3 of the Convention, it decided to examine the merits of the application at the same time as its admissibility.

THE FACTS

I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE

The applicant was born in 1927 and lives in Gaziantep.

In 2000 the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (“the Ministry”) expropriated two plots of land belonging to the applicant (plot no. 247 in block no. 103 and plot no. 14 in block no. 130) in Erenköy village, Nizip, for the construction of the Birecik dam.

On 23 May 2000 the applicant brought two separate actions before the Nizip Civil Court for additional compensation.

On 22 and 25 December 2000 respectively the Nizip Civil Court awarded the applicant additional compensation plus interest at the statutory rate, running from 9 June 2000 (judgments nos. 2000/5137 and 2000/4790).

On 9 July 2001 the Court of Cassation upheld the judgments of the first‑instance court.

On 30 April 2003 the Ministry made a partial payment to the applicant, namely 23,449,000,000 Turkish liras (TRL)1 for plot no. 247 and TRL 13,494,000,0002 for plot no. 14.

On 2 May 2003 the Birecik Execution Office issued a payment order to the Ministry where it informed the latter that it had an outstanding debt of TRL 3,073,350,4803 for plot no. 247 and TRL 1,804,328,4144 for plot no. 14.

On 28 June 2007 the applicant’s representative sent a letter to the Ministry whereby he agreed to accept the calculations made by the administration for the discharge of its outstanding debt.

On 8 July 2008 the Government informed the Court that they had not yet made any further payments to the applicant to discharge their outstanding debt.