Information Note on the Court’s case-law 187

July 2015

Cıngıllı Holding A.Ş. and Cıngıllıoğlu v. Turkey - 31833/06 and 37538/06

Judgment 21.7.2015 [Section II]

Article 6

Enforcement proceedings

Article 6-1

Access to court

Authorities’ failure to examine alternative solutions where restitutio in integrum enforcement of a court judgment proved impossible: violation

Article 1 of Protocol No. 1

Article 1 para. 1 of Protocol No. 1

Peaceful enjoyment of possessions

Unlawful takeover and sale of a private bank: violation

Facts – The case concerned the transfer and subsequent sale of Demirbank in 2000, Turkey’s fifth largest private bank at the time. The applicants were its main shareholders. In December 2000 the Banking Regulation and Supervision Board (“the Board”) transferred Demirbank’s management and control to the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (“the Fund”) on the ground that Demirbank’s assets were insufficient to cover its liabilities and that the continuation of its activities would threaten the security and stability of the financial system. In a judgment of 5 November 2004, the Supreme Administrative Court annulled the takeover of the bank by the Fund finding that the takeover without investigating any further options had been unlawful. In 2001, while the proceedings were pending, the Fund sold Demirbank to the HSBC Bank. The agreement to sell Demirbank was annulled by the Turkish courts in 2004. The applicants requested the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (“the Agency”) to enforce the court judgments and return Demirbank to its previous owners. In 2006 the Agency informed them that this would be impossible as, following its sale to HSBC, Demir