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Hurriyet, Turkey
June 23 2013
Demonstration marking 1993 Sivas massacre joins hands with Gezi Park
ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency
Thousands gathered in Istanbul's Anatolian district of Kadıköy to mark
the upcoming 20th anniversary of the Sivas massacre, upon a call from
Alevi associations.
A number of unions as well as the Taksim Solidarity Platform, a local
organization that launched the Gezi Park protests, also attended the
demonstration. A representative of the platform made a speech
emphasizing that their demands had yet to be met by the government.
The crowd was commemorating the killing of 35 people on the night of
July 1-2, 1993, in an arson attack led by a mob on a hotel where many
Alevi intellectuals and artists who had come to Sivas for a conference
were staying. The controversies surrounding the pogrom have never
completely been uncovered and an Ankara court dropped the case on the
killings in March 2012, ruling that the charges against the suspects
exceeded the statute of limitations. The Madımak hotel has since
become a symbol of the discrimination faced by the Alevi community,
who have long asked the state to turn it into a memorial museum.
Demonstrators also commemorated Ethem Sarısülük, a young Alevi
protester who died after allegedly being shot by police during the
Gezi Park events in Ankara.
Outcry over third Bosphorus bridge's name
At the Kadıköy demonstration, Kemal Bülbül, the Chairman of the Pir
Sultan Abdal Culture Association, slammed Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
ErdoÄ?an's attitude toward the Alevi community. "After saying 'one
confession,' 'one religion,' 'one language,' 'one race,' he now says
'one man.' We don't accept any of it," Bülbül said.
He also criticized the choice of the name "Yavuz Sultan Selim" for the
future third bridge over the Bosphorus. Known in English as "Selim the
Grim," Selim is the Ottoman Sultan who is well known for slaughtering
Alevis, and the Alevi community has repeatedly expressed its outrage
over the government's selection.
Following the bridge furor, President Abdullah Gül proposed to name a
future project after Hacı BektaÅ?, a mystic who influenced the Alevi
faith, or the Alevi poet Pir Sultan Abdal.
"Change the name of the university in Sivas to Pir Sultan Abdal.
Establish the Hacı BektaÅ? Theology University. Change the name of
Tunceli, which is in fact the name of a military operation, back to
Dersim. Then we'll talk," Bülbül said.
"Establish an inquiry commission into all the people who have been the
victim of massacres: Alevis, Armenians, Syriacs, Turks, and Kurds," he
added.
The Kadıköy demonstration came on the same day that ErdoÄ?an warned of
attempts to "foment ethnic tensions" in Turkey during a rally in
Erzurum. He also hinted that a future rally could be held in Sivas, as
preparations for the 20th commemoration of the attack on the Madımak
hotel are ongoing.
June/23/2013
June 23 2013
Demonstration marking 1993 Sivas massacre joins hands with Gezi Park
ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency
Thousands gathered in Istanbul's Anatolian district of Kadıköy to mark
the upcoming 20th anniversary of the Sivas massacre, upon a call from
Alevi associations.
A number of unions as well as the Taksim Solidarity Platform, a local
organization that launched the Gezi Park protests, also attended the
demonstration. A representative of the platform made a speech
emphasizing that their demands had yet to be met by the government.
The crowd was commemorating the killing of 35 people on the night of
July 1-2, 1993, in an arson attack led by a mob on a hotel where many
Alevi intellectuals and artists who had come to Sivas for a conference
were staying. The controversies surrounding the pogrom have never
completely been uncovered and an Ankara court dropped the case on the
killings in March 2012, ruling that the charges against the suspects
exceeded the statute of limitations. The Madımak hotel has since
become a symbol of the discrimination faced by the Alevi community,
who have long asked the state to turn it into a memorial museum.
Demonstrators also commemorated Ethem Sarısülük, a young Alevi
protester who died after allegedly being shot by police during the
Gezi Park events in Ankara.
Outcry over third Bosphorus bridge's name
At the Kadıköy demonstration, Kemal Bülbül, the Chairman of the Pir
Sultan Abdal Culture Association, slammed Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
ErdoÄ?an's attitude toward the Alevi community. "After saying 'one
confession,' 'one religion,' 'one language,' 'one race,' he now says
'one man.' We don't accept any of it," Bülbül said.
He also criticized the choice of the name "Yavuz Sultan Selim" for the
future third bridge over the Bosphorus. Known in English as "Selim the
Grim," Selim is the Ottoman Sultan who is well known for slaughtering
Alevis, and the Alevi community has repeatedly expressed its outrage
over the government's selection.
Following the bridge furor, President Abdullah Gül proposed to name a
future project after Hacı BektaÅ?, a mystic who influenced the Alevi
faith, or the Alevi poet Pir Sultan Abdal.
"Change the name of the university in Sivas to Pir Sultan Abdal.
Establish the Hacı BektaÅ? Theology University. Change the name of
Tunceli, which is in fact the name of a military operation, back to
Dersim. Then we'll talk," Bülbül said.
"Establish an inquiry commission into all the people who have been the
victim of massacres: Alevis, Armenians, Syriacs, Turks, and Kurds," he
added.
The Kadıköy demonstration came on the same day that ErdoÄ?an warned of
attempts to "foment ethnic tensions" in Turkey during a rally in
Erzurum. He also hinted that a future rally could be held in Sivas, as
preparations for the 20th commemoration of the attack on the Madımak
hotel are ongoing.
June/23/2013