Turkish crime against Humanity
According to official numbers, 111 people, mostly Alevis, were massacred savagely in the Maras Massacre from 19 to 25 December 1978. The witnesses of the massacre can not forget the agony of massacre despite 36 years passing over it. Thousands of Alevis were wounded during the incidents, over 111 people were massacred, more than 552 houses and some 289 shops were destroyed. The witnesses of the massacre say, “We witnessed babies being beheaded in their swaddles, how can we forget this?”
The massacre of Kahramanmaraş started with a bomb thrown into a movie house. Rumors spread that left-wingers had thrown the bomb. The next day, another bomb was thrown into a coffee-shop frequently visited by left-wing circles. In the evening of 21 December 1978, 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”.
On 23 December 1978, the incidents turned into a mass phenomenon. Groups stormed the neighborhoods where Alevis were living, destroyed their houses and shops. Many offices, including that of Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK) and Teachers’ Association of Turkey (TÖB-DER) were destroyed.
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 of imprisonment. The Court of Cassation quashed the sentences and because of legal amendments all defendants were released in 1991.
A secret document revealed that the secret service (MİT) had planned the incidents. Opinions of witnesses include the following observations:
Seyho Demir: “The Maraş Police Chief at the time was Abdülkadir Aksu. The massacre was organised by the Turkish secret service MIT, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Islamists together… As soon as I heard about the massacre, I went to Maraş. In the morning I went to Maraş 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 slightly-wounded people from the hospital to downstairs and killed them.’ This was done under the control of the head physician of the Maraş State Hospital. Lawyer Halil Güllüoglu followed the Maraş 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 in 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 with eight people in the cellar; they did not see us and left.