Turkish MPs to face court for wedding gunfire

Tuncer Essizhan, a lawyer, claims that televised coverage of them firing into the air at a wedding last summer caused him emotional distress.

He took his damages action to Strasbourg, and the ECHR has agreed to hear the case against the MPs, Eyup Fatsa and Enver Yilmaz.

Mr Essizhan's action is just the latest stage of a "No to Personal Armament" campaign that he started after Alistair, two, was killed as he slept in a stroller while on holiday in the resort town of Foca, western Turkey.

Daimi Akyuz, a taxi driver and car salesman who opened fire with a handgun after an argument, was later jailed for 36 years over the boy's death and for the murder of a Turkish man.

After the court ruling, Mr Essizhan said: "It's a huge success for the cause of disarmament in this country. Our aim is to prevent others from going through the same pain we had and make sure that people don't die for nothing."

There are believed to be at least eight million privately-owned guns in Turkey, a country of 70 million people.

According to official statistics, 3,000 people a year die from gunshot wounds, 600 of them killed accidentally like Alistair. Of those, about 200 are killed by bullets fired in celebration at weddings, circumcisions or after football matches, according to Altay Akturk of an Istanbul gun-control advocacy group.

For him, Mr Essizhan's ECHR success is a major victory for the anti-gun lobby. "His case against the MPs is the first of its kind in Turkey", Mr Akturk said. "And while it looks difficult to win from a legal perspective, the fact it's got to Europe is sure to attract plenty of attention back home."

Mr Essizhan's wife, Gulay, the lawyer who took his case to Strasbourg, said a law brought in since Alistair's death had made shooting into the air an offence punishable by up to three years in prison. Only the MPs' parliamentary immunity had enabled them to go unpunished.

"We'd like to see their immunity go, ultimately", she said. "These are men selected by the public. They should be working for our interest. And they should set an example. What do you think would happen if a European MP was caught doing what they did? He'd be sacked on the spot, wouldn't he?"

The stories of people killed by stray bullets make headline news in Turkey these days, thanks in large part to the campaigning of people such as the Essizhans and the Grimasons.

Ali Bardakoglu, the director of Turkey's influential religious affairs directorate, issued a religious decree this summer proclaiming it a sin to fire guns in celebration. "Respect for human life is one of the most important aspects of our religion", said Mr Bardakoglu, who lost a friend to a stray bullet. "Are [these men] trying to show their manliness by firing into the air?"

The government has also taken action, passing laws that boost the penalties for firing in public or accidental killing. But many still believe guns are the sine qua non of Turkish masculinity. "We are a martial culture and we have our traditions", the MP Hasan Kara said in July.