Turkey rejects human rights ruling

Ankara (Reuter) - Ankara yesterday rejected the European Court of Human Rights' condemnation of Turkey for its army's tactics in the fight against Kurdish separatist guerrillas.

"Since the case was proceeded with in Strasbourg without first exhaustion of domestic means and without application to the independent Turkish courts, it is difficult for us to understand," a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Omer Akbel, said. He said Turkey found the court was in error. In its first condemnation of Turkey, the court ruled that Turkey had violated the European Convention on Human Rights because its forces had destroyed Kelekci village in the south-east of the country in 1992 and 1993.