The father of a Bristol woman killed while fighting Islamic State in Syria is to take the Turkish Government to the European Court of Human Rights to force them to hand back her remains.
Anna Campbell was just 26 when she was killed in March 2018 by a Turkish airstrike in Afrin, a town in north-western Syria at the time under Kurdish control, but being attacked by Turkish forces.
She was given a temporary grave, and her family back in Britain know the exact location, and have been requesting the Turkish Government allow her body to be repatriated.
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But more than four years after her death, and despite a number of legal challenges and representations in the courts in Turkey, Anna’s father Dirk said he has been ignored by the Turkish Government.
Now, he has launched a fresh legal challenge - backed by a new fundraising campaign - to take his case to Strasbourg. Previous legal cases, funded by more than £25,000 in donations from supporters and well-wishers, resulted in representations to the Government being lodged in courts in Turkey last year, but they failed.
“Turkey has not engaged with our application in any substantive manner,” Mr Campbell said. “First, our case was transferred to another court, and then (earlier this month) we were told we were not entitled to any remedy. The Turkish legal process has been painfully slow from the start. It is becoming abundantly clear that we will get no justice in Turkey,” he added.
Now, Mr Campbell hopes the European Court of Human Rights may be able to help, with a ruling instructing Turkey to comply with international law that requires nations to deal properly with deaths resulting from war in their territories.
Anna was an activist in Bristol who travelled to Syria to join the fight against Daesh - or ISIS - fighting alongside other Western men and women and with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, the YPG.
With Syria descending into civil war, the Kurdish people in northern Syria seized the opportunity to establish their own independent areas, to protect themselves against both the Assad regime and Islamic State, which swept across Iraq and Syria in the mid-2010s.
But the rise of Kurdish areas in Syria was considered a threat by neighbouring Turkey, where the Kurdish people have also been involved in a decades-long independence movement. So Turkey entered the Syrian civil war - not to attack Isis or President Assad's forces, but to attack the Kurdish forces.
Anna, who was given the Kurdish name Hêlîn Qereçox after she joined the YPG, was killed in March 2018 by a Turkish missile strike in an area of northern Syria that is now under Turkish control.
“Anna was a beautiful loving daughter, a feminist, an activist, a woman of courage who dedicated her life to fight for a better world for the rest of us,” said Mr Campbell. “
“Anna’s remains still lie on the battlefield in Afrin, which is now Turkish-controlled territory. We know the exact location. The British Government has failed to take any meaningful action and my requests to the Turkish Government have gone unheeded,” he added.
So Mr Campbell said the Strasbourg court was his ‘last hope’. “As I have not received any redress from the Turkish Government and seem to have no hope of doing so, I am ready to take my case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Turkey has violated its international human rights obligations by failing to return Anna’s remains or to properly account for the events that led to her death. Turkey has a long history of disregarding international law in this way, and this must end.
“The European Court of Human Rights can hold Turkey to account for its failures. It will consider my application and, if successful, will declare that the Turkish Government has violated my human rights and that Anna’s remains should be returned to her family. Perhaps, finally, the Turkish Government will be forced to adhere to fundamental humanitarian law and start to treat those who are suffering from their actions with basic human dignity,” he added.
Anna, who left university in Sheffield to move to Bristol and worked as a plumber, is remembered across Bristol, with murals and graffiti regularly appearing to pay tribute to her. There have been several protests or marches in tribute to Anna in Bristol in the years since.
Mr Campbell said he hoped people would renew their support with donations to help his legal team bring the case to the European Court. “Many of you have already been so generous in supporting me to get this far,” he said, in a message to potential donors. “I can’t tell you how much this means to me.
“I believe that bringing a Human Rights claim at the Strasbourg Court in my last and only hope to return my daughter’s remains to the UK and to also hold Turkey accountable for their unacceptable behaviour. I simply could not continue this fight for justice without you,” he added.
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