Thousands of Alevites were at the meeting held at Adana by the Pir Sultan Abdal Culture Association (PSBKD) for the thirtieth anniversary of the Maraş massacre, where Alevites women, men and children were massacred by the fascist-sunnite majority. 

The participants, who had come from the provinces of Adıyaman, Malatya, Sivas, Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir, demanded the opening of state’s secret archives and the prosecution of the real perpetrators of the massacre.

“We had trusted the state”

Metin Çelik, President of PSBKD’s Adana branch and one of those in the organizing committee, said, “We had trusted the state, we carry its identity cards but those identity cards were burned at Maraş thirty years ago.”

Çelik said they were having these meetings to bring the perpetrators of the massacre to justice.

Ali Balkız, President of the Alevite Bektashi Federation (ABF), said that they did and will not forget the events that took place at Maraş thity years ago.

Balkız also said that they made a demand regarding the dismissal of the Sivas massacre case for the statue of limitations at the hearing in Ankara last week.

“The Alevite history is the history of massacres”

Fevzi Gümüş, PSAKD’s president, said, “Trying to cover the Maraş massacre is a sin, a crime against humanity. The Maraş massacre is another Karbala in the history of Alevites. Maraş massacre is a wound that still bleeds within ourselves after thirty years as Karbala still does after centuries; for the perpetrators of Maraş are still not tried, like the perpetrators of May Day of 1977, Sivas, Çorum and Gazi are not.”

Stating that the Alevite history was the history of massacres, Turgut Öker, President of the Confederation of the European Alevite Associations, said, “We are never going to relive more Maraş and Madımak massacres, because we are more organized now.”

The meeting ended with a concert by an artist, Ozan Emekçi, who had lost his close ones in the massacre.

Many organizations such as the Revolutionary Confederation of the Trade Unions (DİSK), the Confederation of Public Employees Trade Unions (KESK), the Turkish Union of Chambers of Engineers and Architects (TMMOB), the Democratic Society Party (DTP), the People’s Houses, the Democratic Rights Federation and many local associations were at the meeting.

Thirteen questions to the President regarding the Maraş

The Platform Against Coups asked President Abdullah Gül thirteen questions about the Maraş massacre in its 30th  anniversary: if the CIA agent Paul Henze had meetings in Maraş before the events, why was the report that was prepared after the massacre not made public, who were the four agents from the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) who participated in the events in Maraş and appeared in the archive of Ecevit, one of the former prime ministers, what was done about police officer Hasan Aydın who bombed the Çiçek movie theater. (BÇ/TB)