A trial that has gone on for 126 years may seem daunting, but the families involved still want to see a verdict reached in southeastern Turkey in what is probably the country's longest-running case.
The issue at the center of the trial in Mardin province is the ownership of 22,000 acres of land, from pastures to caves sprawling across the Akıncı village. None of the original plaintiffs survived the lengthy process, but descendants of the four families involved in the legal process keep it going. Expert witnesses from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will present their reports on the disputed lands on June 16, a day that will likely not be the end of the hearing.
The trial, which started in 1896, during the times of the Ottoman Empire, involves two-thirds of the arable lands of the village in the Artuklu district of Mardin. Some 500 hearings have been held since, with countless expert witnesses coming and going, measuring the lands and how they could be shared among family members or whether the claims are correct. The notoriously cumbersome legal system further prolonged the trial but even in this age of judicial reforms where the trials are wrapped up faster than ever, the legal proceedings seem like they would last forever for the plaintiffs.
Plaintiffs from the families of Ersak, Eren, Bulut and Keleş had attended the latest hearing on April 7, as the third-generation descendants of the original plaintiffs.
What triggered the trial was the death of Ali Fendi Ağa in the 19th century. The "ağa" (alternately spelled as agha) in his name refers to the title given mainly to wealthy chieftains of tribes in eastern Turkey. Ağas were owners of the large agricultural lands in the past with sometimes hundreds of people in their employment and sometimes, even in their own jurisdiction. Ali Fendi’s lands were divided into three among his heirs, including Ahmet, Ali Fendi and Ali Biro. Ali Fendi and Ali Biro sold half of their land claims to Ensarizade Şeyh Ibrahim and Hamdan Ağa, but the other family members filed lawsuits, claiming an unfair division of inheritance and to render the sale annulled. Lawsuits and counter-lawsuits followed for ownership of different parts of the lands.
In 1941, Ismail Bulut filed another lawsuit for the entire 22,000 acres of land against the Keleş family. Eight years later, the same family was involved in another trial over ownership and the two trials were merged. The sides sought cancellation of title deeds and determination of “authentic owners” but neither lawyers nor prosecutors and judges, supported by expert witnesses over decades, were able to determine the exact amount of shares each side is entitled to.
The land they seek ownership of is currently not “owned” according to court records. Numan Ersak, a descendant of Daşlı Hamdan Ağa, one of the original plaintiffs, says they wonder if they would “live long enough” to see their rights to the lands reinstated.
Ahmet Battal, a lawyer for the Ersak family, notes that the trial is still in the “first stage” after all those years and says an appeals process that follows once the verdict is reached may take more time. “Lawsuits followed each since (the Ottoman times) and this latest lawsuit, which began in 1978, is the continuation of others. I am not sure if there is any other trial as long as this one,” he said.
Battal claims that though the case is complicated, there were other factors prolonging the trial. “It appears some people deliberately sought to prolong it (in the past),” he said. For Battal and other lawyers, it was a complex case, involving multiple lawsuits. He says it felt like putting together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, before presenting a final petition to the court, summing up their claims in 63 pages. “It was like archaeological work for us,” he joked.
Still, he believes the conclusion is “near” in the case he is working on with two of his colleagues. “The court ordered a new measurement of the land and asked for final reports, and we now expect a verdict,” he said.
