The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has found Turkey guilty of violating various articles of the European Convention on Human Rights in the case of the bombing of Kuşkonar and Koçağılı villages of Şırnak province in 1994. The court ruled Turkey to pay a total of 2,305,000 euros in non-pecuniary damages, and 5,700 euros to cover the trial costs and expenses to the relatives of 33 people killed in the bombing.

The court ruled on Tuesday the attack had been the responsibility of the Turkish government, and concluded that the Turkish government had conducted an aerial attack killing 33 of the applicants' relatives and injuring three of the applicants themselves.

The court said the Turkish government's blaming of the attack on Kurdish rebels, PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) militants, was "was generally the case in southeast Turkey at the time, they hastily blamed the killings on the PKK without any basis.”

The attacks "had been ordered and carried out without the slightest concern for human life by the pilots or by their superiors, which they had then tried to cover up by refusing to hand over the flight log”, ruled the court.

Judges in Strasbourg urged Turkish authorities to further probe the bombings in a bid to “identify and punish those responsible and prevent further impunity.”