Maraş Massacre
Encyclopedia
The Maraş Massacre or Kahramanmaraş Massacre of December 1978 was the massacre
of more than hundred civilians, mostly Alevi
s, a minority Muslim group in Turkey
. The prime perpetrators were Greywolves
. It was an attack by rightists on leftists, Turks on Kurds, Sunnis
(probably Kurdish as well as Turkish) on Alevis.
Incidents leading to the pogrom
The incident in Kahramanmaraş
lasted from 19 to 26 December 1978. They started with a bomb thrown into a cinema attended mostly by right-wingers. Rumors spread that left-wingers had thrown the bomb. The next day a bomb was thrown into a coffee-shop frequented by left-wingers, In the evening of 21 December 1978 the teachers Hacı Çolak and Mustafa Yüzbaşıoğlu were killed on their way home. They were known as left-wingers. While a crowd of some 5,000 people prepared for the funeral right-wing groups stirred up emotions saying that "the communists are going to bomb the mosque and will massacre our Muslim brothers."
. Groups stormed the quarters where Alevis were living destroying houses and shops. Many offices including that of DİSK, TÖB-DER, Pol-DER and CHP
were destroyed. During the incidents 111 people were killed, 552 houses and 289 shops were destroyed. The figures on casualties vary slightly. The same figure is given in the Independent Communication Network Bianet and the platform Turkish information, while the daily Zaman puts the death toll at 105. On 26 December 1978 martial law was announced in İstanbul
, Ankara
, Adana
, Kahramanmaraş, Gaziantep
, Elazığ
, Bingöl
, Erzurum
, Erzincan
, Kars
, Malatya
, Sivas and Urfa.
The court cases opened at military courts lasted until 1991. A total of 804 defendants, mostly right-wingers, were put on trial. The courts passed 29 death penalties and sentenced seven defendants to life imprisonment and 321 people to sentences between one and 24 years' imprisonment. The Court of Cassation quashed the sentences and because of legal amendments all defendants were released in 1991.
was behind the provocation. Fevzi Gümüş, chair of the Cultural Association Pir Sultan Abdal is convinced that the CIA and the deep state
must have been involved Turan Eser, President of the Alevi Bektasi Federation, spoke at the 29th anniversary of the massacre in Maras. He claimed that before the events, "counter guerrilla and racist paramilitary imperialist henchmen made efforts to spread the seeds of hatred between those who were citizens of the same country and had lived together in peace for centuries."
Ökkeş Şendiller, who had been on trial for being involved in the incident and later became a deputy, later joining the nationalist BBP
maintained that the government carried responsibility. A secret document revealed that the secret service MİT had planned the incidents. Opinions of witnesses include the following observations:
On 28 December 2007 the radio station Voice of Free Radio and Songs (tr: Özgür Radyo ve Türkülerin Sesi Radyosu) broadcast a program in which Ökkeş Şendiller was interviewed over the phone. Passages of the conversation with Hasan Harmancı are (only quotes from ÖŞ):
On 30 April 2011 Hamit Kapan, an alleged member of Devrimci Savaş accused General Yusuf Haznedaroğlu, leading member of the command for martial law in Kahramanmaraş for being responsible for the torture at the time. The general had tried to blame his organization for the killings. He had been held incommunicado
for 300 days and two friends of his had died under torture.
Turkey°N date=July 2009°W
Massacre
A massacre is an event with a heavy death toll.Massacre may also refer to:-Entertainment:*Massacre , a DC Comics villain*Massacre , a 1932 drama film starring Richard Barthelmess*Massacre, a 1956 Western starring Dane Clark...
of more than hundred civilians, mostly Alevi
Alevi
The Alevi are a religious and cultural community, primarily in Turkey, constituting probably more than 15 million people....
s, a minority Muslim group in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. The prime perpetrators were Greywolves
Grey Wolves
The Idealist Youth , commonly known as Grey Wolves , is an ultra-nationalist neo-fascist youth organization. It is accused of terrorism. According to Turkish authorities, the organization carried out 694 murders between 1974–1980.-Name:...
. It was an attack by rightists on leftists, Turks on Kurds, Sunnis
Sunni Islam
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam. Sunni Muslims are referred to in Arabic as ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah wa āl-Ǧamāʿah or ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah for short; in English, they are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis or Sunnites....
(probably Kurdish as well as Turkish) on Alevis.
Incidents leading to the pogromPogromA pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
The incident in KahramanmaraşKahramanmaras
-Industry:Kahramanmaraş's industry is mainly based on textile and ice cream. Kahramanmaraş is one of the biggest textile industry cities of Turkey. Companies like Kipaş, İskur, Arsan and Bozkurt are one of the richest companies in the city...
lasted from 19 to 26 December 1978. They started with a bomb thrown into a cinema attended mostly by right-wingers. Rumors spread that left-wingers had thrown the bomb. The next day a bomb was thrown into a coffee-shop frequented by left-wingers, In the evening of 21 December 1978 the teachers Hacı Çolak and Mustafa Yüzbaşıoğlu were killed on their way home. They were known as left-wingers. While a crowd of some 5,000 people prepared for the funeral right-wing groups stirred up emotions saying that "the communists are going to bomb the mosque and will massacre our Muslim brothers."
The scope of the massacre
On 23 December 1978 the incidents turned into a mass phenomenonPhenomenon
A phenomenon , plural phenomena, is any observable occurrence. Phenomena are often, but not always, understood as 'appearances' or 'experiences'...
. Groups stormed the quarters where Alevis were living destroying houses and shops. Many offices including that of DİSK, TÖB-DER, Pol-DER and CHP
Republican People's Party (Turkey)
The Republican People's Party is a centre-left Kemalist political party in Turkey. It is the oldest political party of Turkey and is currently Main Opposition in the Grand National Assembly. The Republican People's Party describes itself as "a modern social-democratic party, which is faithful to...
were destroyed. During the incidents 111 people were killed, 552 houses and 289 shops were destroyed. The figures on casualties vary slightly. The same figure is given in the Independent Communication Network Bianet and the platform Turkish information, while the daily Zaman puts the death toll at 105. On 26 December 1978 martial law was announced in İstanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, Ankara
Ankara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
, Adana
Adana
Adana is a city in southern Turkey and a major agricultural and commercial center. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, 30 kilometres inland from the Mediterranean, in south-central Anatolia...
, Kahramanmaraş, Gaziantep
Gaziantep
Gaziantep , Ottoman Turkish: Ayintab) previously and still informally called Antep; ʻayn tāb is a city in southeast Turkey and amongst the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. The city is located 185 kilometres northeast of Adana and 127 kilometres by road north of Aleppo, Syria...
, Elazığ
Elazig
Elâzığ is a city in Eastern Anatolia, Turkey and the seat of Elâzığ Province. It has a population of331,479 according to the 2010 census, and the plain on which the city extends has an altitude of 1067 metres....
, Bingöl
Bingöl
Bingöl is a city in Eastern Turkey. It is also known as Çabakcur , which means violent water in Armenian. It is surrounded by mountains and a large number of glacier lakes, hence the name . Lately, the town has become a popular tourist destination...
, Erzurum
Erzurum
Erzurum is a city in Turkey. It is the largest city, the capital of Erzurum Province. The city is situated 1757 meters above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 361,235 in the 2000 census. .Erzurum, known as "The Rock" in NATO code, served as NATO's southeastern-most air force post during the...
, Erzincan
Erzincan
-Trivia:Erzincan has the largest man made of Portrait of Atatürk, located north of the city, 176m×43m. It covers 7,500 square meter. Turkish Army made it 1982, in 29 days by 3,000 soldier, 100 tons of black and white paint was used...
, Kars
Kars
Kars is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. The population of the city is 73,826 as of 2010.-Etymology:As Chorzene, the town appears in Roman historiography as part of ancient Armenia...
, Malatya
Malatya
Malatya ) is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of its eponymous province.-Overview:The city site has been occupied for thousands of years. The Assyrians called the city Meliddu. Following Roman expansion into the east, the city was renamed in Latin as Melitene...
, Sivas and Urfa.
The court cases opened at military courts lasted until 1991. A total of 804 defendants, mostly right-wingers, were put on trial. The courts passed 29 death penalties and sentenced seven defendants to life imprisonment and 321 people to sentences between one and 24 years' imprisonment. The Court of Cassation quashed the sentences and because of legal amendments all defendants were released in 1991.
Assessments
Hasan Fehmi Güneş, who became Interior Minister after the incidents is convinced that the massacre was planned. Ruşen Sümbüloğlu, chair of the Association of persons from 1978 in Ankara claimed that the Counter-GuerrillaCounter-Guerrilla
Counter-Guerrilla is the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, a clandestine stay-behind anti-communist initiative backed by the United States as an expression of the Truman Doctrine. The founding goal of the operation was to erect a guerrilla force capable of countering a possible Soviet invasion...
was behind the provocation. Fevzi Gümüş, chair of the Cultural Association Pir Sultan Abdal is convinced that the CIA and the deep state
Deep state
The Deep state is alleged to be a group of influential anti-democratic coalitions within the Turkish political system, composed of high-level elements within the intelligence services , Turkish military, security, judiciary, and mafia. The notion of deep state is similar to that of a "state within...
must have been involved Turan Eser, President of the Alevi Bektasi Federation, spoke at the 29th anniversary of the massacre in Maras. He claimed that before the events, "counter guerrilla and racist paramilitary imperialist henchmen made efforts to spread the seeds of hatred between those who were citizens of the same country and had lived together in peace for centuries."
Ökkeş Şendiller, who had been on trial for being involved in the incident and later became a deputy, later joining the nationalist BBP
Great Union Party
The Great Union Party is a nationalist political party in Turkey, created on January 29, 1993. It is considered to be close to the Grey Wolves organization, and is related to the "Alperen Ocakları" tendency, which operated a synthesis between Islamism and Turkish Nationalism, and separated itself...
maintained that the government carried responsibility. A secret document revealed that the secret service MİT had planned the incidents. Opinions of witnesses include the following observations:
- Seyho Demir: "The Maras Police Chief at the time was Abdülkadir AksuAbdülkadir AksuAbdülkadir Aksu , is a Turkish politician from Diyarbakır. He is married and has 2 children.-Ethnic Origin:According to some sources, he is Kurdish ; according to Üzeyir Tekin, he is of partial Albanian and Kurdish origin; and according to Hasan Celal Güzel, a friend of Aksu family, he is of...
. The massacre was organised by MIT (the Turkish secret service), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHPMHPMHP may stand for:*Minsk-1 Airport*Montana Highway Patrol*Monty Hall problem*A mental health professional*Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi - a Turkish nationalist political party*Multimedia Home Platform...
) and the Islamists together... As soon as I heard about the massacre, I went to Maras. In the morning I went to MarasMarasIn ancient Latvia, Māras or Māras diena was a festival, celebrated on August 15, held in honor of Māra, the Latvian goddess. It marked the midpoint between Jāņi and Miķeļi...
State Hospital. There I met a nurse I knew... When she saw me, she was surprised: 'Seyho, where have you come from? They are killing everyone here. They have taken at least ten lightly-wounded people from the hospital downstairs and killed them.' This was done under the control of the head physician of the Maras State Hospital. The lawyer Halil Güllüoglu followed the Maras massacre case. The files he had were never made public. He was killed for pursuing the case anyway." - Meryem Polat: "They started in the morning, burning all the houses, and continued into the afternoon. A child was burned in a boiler. They sacked everything. We were in the water in the cellar, above us were wooden boards. The boards were burning and falling on top of us. My house was reduced to ashes. We were eight people in the cellar; they did not see us and left."
On 28 December 2007 the radio station Voice of Free Radio and Songs (tr: Özgür Radyo ve Türkülerin Sesi Radyosu) broadcast a program in which Ökkeş Şendiller was interviewed over the phone. Passages of the conversation with Hasan Harmancı are (only quotes from ÖŞ):
- I was chosen as victim. I saw the most horrible torture. The teachers that were killed were not Alevi. They were left-wing Sunnis. There were clashes in which people of both sides were killed... I am talking about court documents. They say that the organization Revolutionary War (tr. Devrimci Savaş) threw the bomb.
On 30 April 2011 Hamit Kapan, an alleged member of Devrimci Savaş accused General Yusuf Haznedaroğlu, leading member of the command for martial law in Kahramanmaraş for being responsible for the torture at the time. The general had tried to blame his organization for the killings. He had been held incommunicado
Incommunicado
Incommunicado, as an adjective or adverb, refers to a situation or a behaviour due to which communication with outsiders is not possible, for either voluntary or involuntary reasons, especially due to confinement or reclusiveness....
for 300 days and two friends of his had died under torture.
Further reading
- Emine Özcan, Remembering the Maras Massacre in 1978, 26 December 2007, Bianet News in English. Retrieved 2010-07-01.
- Yildiz, Kerim and Susan Breau, The Kurdish Conflict: International Humanitarian Law and Post-Conflict Mechanisms, (Routledge, 2010)
- "Alevite Meeting for the Still Unresolved Maraş Massacre," 22 December 2008, Bianet News in English. Retrieved 2010-07-02.
- David McDowall. A Modern History of the Kurds, Google Books, p. 415. Retrieved 2010-07-02.
- Martin Sökefeld. Struggling for Recognition: the Alevi Movement in Germany and in Transnational Space, Google Books, p. 51. Retrieved 2010-07-02.
See also
- List of massacres in Turkey
- Sivas massacreSivas massacreThe Sivas massacre refers to the events of July 2, 1993 which resulted in the deaths of 37 people, mostly Alevi intellectuals, and two hotel employees. Two people from the mob were also dead...
- 1980 Turkish coup d'état
- Martial law and state of emergency in TurkeyMartial law and state of emergency in TurkeySince 1940 Turkey has frequently been under extraordinary rule, either the whole of the country or specific provinces. According to Articles 119-122 of the 1982 Constitution the four types of extraordinary rule are martial law , state of emergency , mobilization and situation of war .-History:On...
Turkey°N date=July 2009°W