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Rembering the Madımak/Sivas massacre 31 years ago

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Rembering the Madımak/Sivas massacre 31 years ago

PostAuthor: Anthea » Thu Jul 04, 2024 10:52 am

31 years ago, the Madımak massacre

The Madımak massacre took place on 2 July 1993 and was directed against participants in a cultural festival held in honour of the Alevi folk poet Pir Sultan Abdal in the central Anatolian city. The guests of the festival, who stayed at the Madımak Hotel, were mainly Alevi artists, poets, thinkers, singers and folklore dancers, but also critical intellectuals of different denominations

A religiously and nationalistically incited mob used the presence of the avowed atheist and well-known writer Aziz Nesin, among others, as a pretext to set fire to the hotel. The trapped people could not escape from the burning building because the angry mob blocked their way and cheered the fire. Although the police, military and fire brigade were alerted, they did not intervene until hours later. The events were broadcast live on state television for hours. 35 people, including two hotel employees, died in the fire at the Madımak Hotel.

    The names of the victims were as follows: Muhlis Akarsu (45), Muhibe Akarsu (44), Gülender Akça (25), Metin Altıok (53), Mehmet Atay (25), Sehergül Ateş (29), Behçet Sefa Aysan (44), Erdal Ayrancı (35), Asım Bezirci (66), Belkıs Çakır (18), Serpil Canik (19), Muammer Çiçek (26), Nesimi Çimen (62), Carina Cuanna Thuijs (23), Serkan Doğan (19), Hasret Gültekin (22), Murat Gündüz (22), Gülsüm Karababa (22), Uğur Kaynar (37), Asaf Koçak (35), Koray Kaya (12), Menekşe Kaya (15), Handan Metin (20), Sait Metin (23), Huriye Özkan (22), Yeşim Özkan (20), Ahmet Özyurt (21), Nurcan Şahin (18), Özlem Şahin (17), Asuman Sivri (16), Yasemin Sivri (19), Edibe Sulari (40), İnci Türk (22) as well as the hotel employees Ahmet Öztürk (21) und Kenan Yılmaz (21)
Two of the perpetrators also died during the incident

Thousands of Sunni residents of Sivas, after attending Friday prayers in a nearby mosque, marched to the hotel in which the conference was taking place and set the building on fire. While the Turkish government portrayed the attack as aimed at Aziz Nesin, Alevi commentators argue that the target were the Alevis, as the mob also destroyed a statue depicting Pir Sultan Abdal erected the day before. Many well-known Alevi intellectuals, poets and musicians were killed in the fire, including Hasret Gültekin, Metin Altıok, Asım Bezirci, Behçet Aysan, Nesimi Çimen and Muhlis Akarsu. Aziz Nesin managed to escape the fire over a ladder. After the firefighters recognized who he was, they started to attack him, but he ran away

The response from the security forces at the time and afterwards was weak. The assault took place over eight hours without any intervention by the police, military or fire department. Alevis and most intellectuals in Turkey argue that the incident was triggered by the local government as flyers and leaflets were published and given out for days before the incident.

The Turkish government refers to the Sivas Madımak Hotel incident as an attack on intellectuals but refuses to see it as an incident directed towards Alevis. The events surrounding the massacre were captured by TV cameras and broadcast all over the world. Every year, during the anniversary of the massacre, various Alevi organizations call for the arrest of those responsible.

Two of the suspects, including Cafer Erçakmak died while on trial. In March 2012, the Sivas massacre case against the remaining five defendants was dropped, owing to the statute of limitations. However, this case is still being appealed.[8]

Indictments, trial and sentences

The event was seen as a major assault on free speech and human rights in Turkey, and significantly deepened the rift between religious and secular segments of the society. A day after the incident, 35 people were arrested. Then the number of detainees increased to 190. A total of 124 out of the 190 defendants were charged with "attempting to establish a religious state by changing the constitutional order" and were indicted on charges.

The first hearing of the case, publicly known as the Sivas Massacre Trial, Ankara State Security Court No. 1, was held on 21 October 1993. On 26 December 1994 a verdict was reached in the case of the 124 defendants: 15 years in prison for 22 suspects, 10 years in prison for 3 defendants, 3 years and 9 months for 54 suspects, 2 years and 4 months for 6 suspects, and the acquittal of 37 of the defendants. Another 14 suspects were sentenced to 15 years in prison. The remaining 33 defendants were charged with 35 counts of murder.

After lengthy court proceedings, the State Security Court sentenced the 33 defendants to death on 28 November 1997 for their roles in the massacre; 31 of these sentences were upheld in a 2001 appeal. When Turkey overturned the death penalty just over a year later in 2002, the sentences were commuted. Each defendant received 35 life sentences, one for each murder victim and additional time for other crimes. These 31 convicts were the only ones still serving time for the crimes; the other defendants were paroled early or released after completing their sentences. In January 2020, Ahmet Turan Kılıc, who at first was sentenced to death for his involvement in the Sivas massacre, was granted a commutation of his sentence by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the grounds of ill-health. As a result his sentence was commuted. Kılıç died in 2021. In September 2023, Erdoğan commuted the sentence of Hayrettin Gül for the same reason.

Commemoration

Each year on the anniversary of the massacre, demonstrators hold protests and vigils to commemorate the victims of the fire. Dario Fo remembered the massacre in his speech accepting the Nobel Prize in 1997. Many wish to see the hotel, which has since re-opened, declared a memorial and turned into a museum. In 2008 a government minister indicated that it would be turned into an Alevi cultural center, but this has yet to occur. In June 2010, the Minister of Work and Social Security announced that the money for buying the hotel had been transferred, and that the Ministry would provide additional resources for restoration. Following the court ruling on 23 November 2010, Hotel Madımak has become a public entity for a compensation of 5,601,000 TL to the hotel owners
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Rembering the Madımak/Sivas massacre 31 years ago

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