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Today's Zaman, Turkey
Dec 19 2012
President Gül orders DDK to investigate 1993 BaÅ?baÄ?lar massacre
19 December 2012 / MUSTAFA GÃ`RLEK, Ä°STANBUL,
President Abdullah Gül on Wednesday ordered the State Audit
Institution (DDK) to launch an investigation into the BaÅ?baÄ?lar
massacre, in which 33 people were brutally killed on July 5, 1993.
Thirty-three people were killed in an attack in the province of
Erzincan in the village of BaÅ?baÄ?lar, a predominantly Sunni village,
on July 5, 1993. The attack was attributed to the terrorist Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) at the time. It came only three days after the
Madımak incident, also called the Sivas massacre as it took place on
July 2, 1993 in Sivas, when 33 Alevi artists and intellectuals --
along with two hotel workers and two assailants -- died when the
Madımak Hotel was set on fire following ethnic provocations. Those who
committed the BaÅ?baÄ?lar massacre left a note that said, `This was
retaliation for the Sivas Massacre.'
But the incident remained unsolved and the perpetrators of the
massacre are still unknown even though an investigation into the
incident was launched. The prosecutor conducting the investigation
decided to abandon the investigation in 1998.
Gül's move comes on the heels of news reports that appeared in the
Turkish media that the case into the BaÅ?baÄ?lar massacre will be
dropped on July 5, 2013 -- on the 20th anniversary of the massacre --
due to the statute of limitations. The president asked the DDK to
`investigate the massacre thoroughly.'
Immediate reports said officials from the DDK will investigate the
BaÅ?baÄ?lar incident as part of a newly launched probe into the Madımak
massacre. They will hear the testimonies of the witnesses of the
incident, such as families of the victims and those who escaped the
attack with injuries.
The DDK, Turkey's presidential investigative body, has in the past
investigated some suspicious incidents such as the death of former
President Turgut Ã-zal and the controversy surrounding a helicopter
crash that killed Muhsin YazıcıoÄ?lu, the late chairman of the Grand
Unity Party (BBP), as well as five other passengers in 2009. The DDK
also investigated the suspected role of some civil servants in the
2007 assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was
killed in Ä°stanbul outside of the offices of the Agos weekly, of which
Dink was the editor-in-chief. Most recently, Gül ordered the DDK to
investigate the Madımak massacre.
Dec 19 2012
President Gül orders DDK to investigate 1993 BaÅ?baÄ?lar massacre
19 December 2012 / MUSTAFA GÃ`RLEK, Ä°STANBUL,
President Abdullah Gül on Wednesday ordered the State Audit
Institution (DDK) to launch an investigation into the BaÅ?baÄ?lar
massacre, in which 33 people were brutally killed on July 5, 1993.
Thirty-three people were killed in an attack in the province of
Erzincan in the village of BaÅ?baÄ?lar, a predominantly Sunni village,
on July 5, 1993. The attack was attributed to the terrorist Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) at the time. It came only three days after the
Madımak incident, also called the Sivas massacre as it took place on
July 2, 1993 in Sivas, when 33 Alevi artists and intellectuals --
along with two hotel workers and two assailants -- died when the
Madımak Hotel was set on fire following ethnic provocations. Those who
committed the BaÅ?baÄ?lar massacre left a note that said, `This was
retaliation for the Sivas Massacre.'
But the incident remained unsolved and the perpetrators of the
massacre are still unknown even though an investigation into the
incident was launched. The prosecutor conducting the investigation
decided to abandon the investigation in 1998.
Gül's move comes on the heels of news reports that appeared in the
Turkish media that the case into the BaÅ?baÄ?lar massacre will be
dropped on July 5, 2013 -- on the 20th anniversary of the massacre --
due to the statute of limitations. The president asked the DDK to
`investigate the massacre thoroughly.'
Immediate reports said officials from the DDK will investigate the
BaÅ?baÄ?lar incident as part of a newly launched probe into the Madımak
massacre. They will hear the testimonies of the witnesses of the
incident, such as families of the victims and those who escaped the
attack with injuries.
The DDK, Turkey's presidential investigative body, has in the past
investigated some suspicious incidents such as the death of former
President Turgut Ã-zal and the controversy surrounding a helicopter
crash that killed Muhsin YazıcıoÄ?lu, the late chairman of the Grand
Unity Party (BBP), as well as five other passengers in 2009. The DDK
also investigated the suspected role of some civil servants in the
2007 assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was
killed in Ä°stanbul outside of the offices of the Agos weekly, of which
Dink was the editor-in-chief. Most recently, Gül ordered the DDK to
investigate the Madımak massacre.