Turkish author Talat Turhan was convicted of defamation of Kilercioğlu in his 1992 book Extraordinary War, Terror and Counter-terrorism.
Turhan was ordered to pay damages to Kilercioğlu, but he appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in 2005.
The Court stated that the truthfulness of a value judgment did not have to be proven, and that Turhan's opinion was based on information which was already known to the general public.
[1] According to the Court, the Turkish courts did not establish why the protection of the personality rights of a public figure weighed more heavily than Turhan's right to freedom of expression on a public issue.
The Court therefore unanimously found that Turhan's right to freedom of expression had been violated.