"To war for Allah"
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The Union for Democracy (DİB) has released a statement to mark the Maraş Massacre that happened on December 19-26, 1978. The statement of the platform has also referred to the recent calls of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) to close the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).
"While the vicious murders committed back then are still remembered on the anniversary of the Maraş massacre, the racist party MHP, the partner of the palace regime, is trying to intimidate the opposition with genocide threats by attacking the HDP," the DİB platform has said.
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The platform has noted that "genocide is a crime against humanity." Raising concerns that "such statements led to bloody consequences in the past," the statement has read, "This land has got enough of its share from the racist, discriminatory and fascist mindset. We need to stand up against this crime against humanity with all the means available to us."
The platform has briefly stated the following:
'That was neither the first nor the last'
"42 years ago, this land saw a bloody massacre. As a result of the attacks that have gone down in history as the Maraş Massacre, our over 50 Alevi citizens have been massacred by being beheaded, boiled in cauldrons, with their eyes scratched out, by being disemboweled and burned in furnaces.
"This was going to be be neither the first nor the last shame experienced by this land, which was once soaked with the blood of our Armenian and Kurdish citizens. Then came Çorum and Sivas massacres, Roboski [massacre in Şırnak] and October 10 [massacre in Ankara].
"History has been insistently showing that only a strong social struggle can ensure that these massacres are brought to light, the responsible parties are called to account and the criminals are put on trial.
'MHP's role in the massacre was obvious'
"The role of the MHP in Maraş Massacre was obvious. Fascists' bloody-minded organization, the Grey Wolves, played a first-degree role in the massacre where the counter-insurgency and CIA were involved.
"Ökkeş Kenger, who was a member of the Grey Wolves Youth Association and one of the people responsible for the massacre and then got the Şendiller surname, was responsible for planting the bomb in a cinema hall in Maraş, which triggered the provocation.
"He then became a deputy from the Welfare Party (RP), even a member of the Parliamentary Human Rights Commission. Just as the Justice and Development Party (AKP) embraced the bloody-minded people responsible for the Sivas massacre, the murderers have found themselves a new home in Islam's capital-supported organizations.
'42 years later...'
"We have been going through days when there is an attempt to institutionalize fascism by the one-man rule. Yet another unlawful and anti-democratic incident happens everyday.
"Presented to the Parliament by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) MPs, the omnibus bill 'to fight the financing of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism' gives the President the authority to freeze assets and eases the conditions for closing down associations.
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'It is not a coincidence'
"The aim is to put society's all objections and opportunities for organization in the brackets of terror and to destroy it with violence and unlawfulness.
"Again, in these days, it is not a coincidence that the chair and vice chair of the racist party, the partner of the ruling party, target the HDP, the most dynamic opposition of the country appealing to the widest masses, and talk about 'exterminating like insects, cleaning and genocide.'
"805 citizens who signed the declaration for a dignified and serene life were also targeted in the same messages.
"What they want to do is to suffocate and intimidate the opposition with the darkest threats and by committing a crime against humanity."
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'Biggest threat to peace'
Concluding its statement, the DİB platform has made a call to all opposition parties at and outside the Parliament and underlined that "it is not an attack solely on HDP, but all democracy forces" in the country.
Referring to the MHP, the statement of the platform has noted that "this mindset which sees waging a war against society as the only way to stay in power is the biggest threat to social peace and serenity."
Reiterating that "an open, resolute and joint reactions must be displayed in the face of this," the DİB has stated,
"These words have never been so meaningful as they are today: There is no salvation alone; either all of us or none of us!"
Maraş Massacre
Between December 19-24,1978, 111 people were killed, according to official reports, in Maraş province when the Sunni residents brutally attacked their Alevite neighbors. According to the unofficial figures, the number of casualties exceeded 500.
Lawsuits were brought against 804 people. 29 of the suspects were sentenced to death penalty, seven other to life in prison and 321 suspects to from 1 to 24 years in prison.
Although thirteen provinces of the country were put under martial law in direct response to the Maraş massacre, this did little to guarantee security of life. Political assassinations continued to occur on a daily basis; just in the course of the trial three lawyers acting for the victims of the massacre, were murdered, and the others faced death threats and were obliged to switch their places of lodging in Adana for the duration of the proceedings.
Discussing and explaining the December 1978 massacre in Maraş has been largely confined to Alevi and leftist circles. There has been little wider discussion, apart from by some on the far right associated with the events. For those who have discussed the events, the overwhelming focus has been on the fact of the killings being the result of a planned conspiracy, the work of rightists and allegedly deep state elements. In some quarters it is even argued to have been the work of international intelligence agencies. That the military court made no attempt to get to the bottom of the incidents has of course fuelled this speculation about the dimensions of the conspiracy.
* Source: bianet article by Emma Sinclair-Webb
(TP/SD)
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