The case concerned a girl born in 2006. The parents were married and the family resided in the United States of America. In August 2007, the family went to Turkey on holiday. The father alleged that his wife had left him in September; she did not return to the United States of America and kept the child with her.
On November 28, the father returned to the United States of America alone. The father applied for divorce in the United States of America, and the mother in Turkey. In April 2008, the US Central Authority requested the child’s return. The mother testified on the following day and explained that she had not returned to the United States of America because the father had taken her passport and the child’s.
On 22 April, the return application was referred to the Family Court in Izmir. At the hearing on 24 June, the Public Prosecutor stressed that as the child was aged only 25 months, no psychological report was necessary, and he pleaded for return to be ordered. The Court dismissed the return application on the same day.
In July, an appeal was entered before the Supreme Court. The latter upheld the lower-court judgment on 19 February 2009. The father filed a motion for amendment on the grounds that this decision by the Supreme Court was inconsistent with that same Court’s precedents. That plea was dismissed on 1 July 2009. The father applied to the European Court of Human Rights (ECrtHR).
