Shame day! Madımak fire has been burning for 32 years

“It was such a day; I fell upon history. Suddenly your beautiful Balkiyan face came before my eyes . And my heart burned and died, My palms were covered with sweat. The buzz of a busy hive Covered my ears. I reached for my cigarette quietly; Addition to my dull life. I died that day, my love, I will never die again.” (Metin Altıok)

(The poet was one of the 33 intellectuals and artists trapped in Madımak. He was rescued from the massacre with injuries, but lost his life on July 9, 1993, after a seven-day struggle for life.)

When the calendars showed July 2, 1993 in Türkiye, a shameful event that will not be forgotten for a long time took place.

The country's intellectuals, artists and poets went to Sivas to meet with the public in a four-day festival program.

One of the opening speakers of the festival on July 1 was the writer Aziz Nesin. Behçet Aysan, Metin Altıok, Uğur Kaynar, Hasret Gültekin, Nesimi Çimen, and Asım Bezirci were also among those who went to the city. The oldest of the group was 66-year-old Asım Bezirci, and the youngest was 12-year-old Koray Kaya, who went to Sivas for the folklore show.

BLACK DECLARATION

Two days before the massacre that was paved in Madımak, a leaflet was circulated in the city. In it, Salman Rushdi’s book ‘The Satanic Verses’, published in the Aydınlık newspaper, of which Aziz Nesin was the editor-in-chief at the time, was targeted. The leaflet also criticized the hosting of the festivals by the then Sivas Governor Ahmet Karabilgin, and used the phrase “He can walk around the city as if mocking Muslims” for Nesin.

WHAT HAPPENED?

On July 2, after Friday prayers, a march was held in front of the cultural center where the events were held, chanting the slogan “Sivas will be a grave for secularists.” While a part of the attacking group tore down the statue of the “Folk Poets” and dragged it on the ground, another part protested Ahmet Karabilgin in front of the governor’s office.

According to the report sent by the governor to the Ministry of Internal Affairs after the massacre, the number of attackers was increasing every hour. According to the same report, at 18:00 in the evening, there were 15 thousand people in front of the Madımak Hotel who had not been dispersed at any stage. The vehicles in front of the hotel and the dragged statue were set on fire, the windows of the hotel were broken. Approximately 2 hours later, the hotel was set on fire, and the crowd continued to chant slogans.

In the footage of the Ihlas News Agency filming in front of the Madımak Hotel, the words of those surrounding the hotel could be heard alongside their slogans: “Damn it’s close”, “Get in and burn it from inside, son”, “This is the fire of hell”

The reinforcements that were invited to the city did not arrive on time or were insufficient. 35 people lost their lives in the hotel.

HOW WAS THE CASE CLOSED?

The main case of the Sivas Massacre was statute of limitations declared in 2012. In the massacre case known as the Sivas Case, which continued until 2012, we encountered a policy of impunity. While it was said that there were 15 thousand attackers, only 124 were prosecuted. In their applications to the court to benefit from the repentance law, defendants Ali Kurt and Mevlüt Atalay described connections to organizations such as Hezbollah, the Islamic Movement Organization and the Kaplancılar, but the court said, “there was no organization involved.” Many of the 124 attackers who were arrested after the incident were given light sentences and severe provocation reductions were applied. 33 defendants were given the death penalty, but this sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. 8 of the defendants who received the death penalty were released in 1997 and were never caught again. In 2012, the court decided to drop the public case against the 7 attackers who were not caught due to the statute of limitations and closed the file. The case could not be closed because the three fugitive defendants were abroad; the case continues to be heard at the Ankara 1st High Criminal Court. Despite 32 years having passed, this massacre case, which has still not been fully resolved, is still remembered as a shameful case.

ERDOĞAN USED HIS POWER TO GIVE AMNESTY TO THE MADIMAK PERPETRATORS

AKP President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had lifted the remaining sentence of Hayrettin Gül, one of the main perpetrators of the Sivas Madımak massacre, "due to illness" two years ago. This was the second time Erdoğan had exercised his power to grant amnesty to the Madımak perpetrators.

In 2020, Erdoğan used his amnesty authority for Ahmet Turan Kılıç, who was sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment for the Madımak massacre. Hayrettin Gül, who was sent to prison in 2003 after being deported from Germany, spent only 20 years in prison for the Madımak massacre with the amnesty brought by Erdoğan.

The lives lost in the massacre will be remembered with longing and yearning throughout Türkiye, as in previous years.

Source: News Center