Commemoration of Ankara Massacre | Police attacks, barricades, detentions for 6 years

* Photos: Social media

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It has been six years since 103 people lost their lives and hundreds of others were wounded in a bomb attack that targeted the Peace Rally in front of the Main Train Station in the capital city of Ankara on October 10, 2015. Except for one year, 2019, the families who wanted to commemorate the deceased were faced with the attack and prevention of the police.

In the first two years after the attack, the police did not allow the commemoration to take palce and intervened against the participants with tear gas. In the third year, a limited attendance was allowed.

In the fourth year after the attack, the ones who attended the commemoration marched to the Ankara Main Train Station in a cortege, chanting slogans, for the first time. However, the commemoration in the following year was not allowed "due to the COVID-19 pandemic." The police attacked the ones who wanted to attend the commemoration ceremony.

And this year, in 2021, the police once again attacked the ones who attended the commemoration with tear gas and rubber bullets yesterday (October 10). A limited number of people were allowed in the site.

2016 - 1st anniversary of the massacre

On the first anniversary of the October 10 Ankara Massacre, a commemoration ceremony would be held in front of the Ankara Main Train Station, where the attack took place. The police attacked the ones who gathered there for the commemoration and barricaded the roads.

The police did not allow the ones walking from the Ulus Subway station to the site to pass and sprayed tear gas on the people who reacted against this police prevention and wanted to enter the site. While several people were detained, only the first degree relatives of the deceased and the members of the parliament were allowed to enter the commemoration site.

2017 - 2nd anniversary

On the second anniversary of the massacre, police officers attacked the groups who wanted to walk together to the commemoration site. The police used tear gas and rubber bullets on the people.

Ahead of the commemoration planned to be held in front of the Ankara Main Train Station, police teams closed all roads leading to the station in the early morning hours. Several bomb technicians and police officers searched the area where the commemoration was to be held and the police said that only the relatives of the deceased, MPs and NGOs would be allowed in.

The ones who wanted to march together from Sıhhiye to the commemoration site were faced with tear gas and plastic bullets from the police.

2018 - 3rd anniversary

On the third anniversary of the October 10 Ankara Massacre, all main and side roads leading to the train station were closed by the police. Anti-Riot Water Cannon Vehicles and riot police teams were referred to the commemoration site in the early morning hours.

The groups opened a banner that read "Peace, democracy and freedom will surely come to this country" while the riot police teams first said that only the wounded and the relatives of the deceased whose names were indicated in their lists would be allowed into the site.

Meanwhile, the police attacked the groups with shields. Republican People's Party (CHP) MP Murat Emir shared the images of a person battered during the ensuing commotion between the groups and police. As a result of reactions, the police allowed people in the commemoration.

2019 - 4th anniversary

In 2019, which marked the fourth anniversary of the October 10 Ankara Massacre, representatives from several professional organizations and MPs gathered in Ulus and marched to the Ankara Main Train Station. They kept a minute of silence at 10.04, the moment when the bombs exploded, and read poems in memory of the ones who lost their lives.

It was the first time that the ones who wanted to commemorate the deceased could form a cortege and walk to the train station.

2020 - 5th anniversary

A group of people including the families of the deceased and the MPs of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) wanted to march to the Ankara Main Train Station for the 5th anniversary of the October 10 Ankara Massacre.

However, they were prevented by the police after leaving the subway station. The police said that the march would not be allowed due to the pandemic and following an argument, police officers intervened against the groups, taking several people into custody during the intervention.

In response to the police announcements calling on them to "disperse", the groups chanted the slogans, "The murderous state will answer for this" and "Don't forget October 10 and don't let it be forgotten." They closed the traffic and protested the police attack in a human chain.

2021 - 6th anniversary

The police intervened against the group who wanted to walk to the area where the massacre happened. The families and representatives of institutions were allowed in front of the Main Train Station. Earlier in the day, at midnight, the Governor's Office removed the Memorial Trees that had been placed in front of the train station in memory of the deceased.

The Ankara Massacre

A suicide attack was launched against the Peace Rally in Ulus, Altındağ in the capital city of Ankara at around 10.04 a.m. on October 10, 2015.

While 69 people lost their lives at the scene of the incident, a total of 103 people and two attackers lost their lives.

After the bombs exploded, police officers used tear gas on the wounded and those who were trying to help them. As a result of this intervention, the wounded could not be referred to hospitals quickly and the survivors were also traumatized.

The scene of the incident was not placed under protection and crime scene investigation teams and prosecutors did not come to the scene immediately. The teams arrived after about one and a half hours and deputy public prosecutor after two and a half hours.

The indictment concerning the attack was approved on July 13, 2016. Accordingly, the order for the attack was given by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria's (ISIS) representative to Turkey, İlhami Balı.

It was stated in the indictment that it was the same people who organized the Suruç bombing, which had killed 33 people. Fourteen suspects including Balı face from 5,083 to 7,820 years in prison on the charges of "attempted murder multiple times" and "attempting to annihilate constitutional order". The trial started on November 7, 2016.

On August 3, 2018, the Ankara 4th Heavy Penal Court handed an aggravated life sentence for "violating the constitutional order" and 100 aggravated life sentences for "wilful murder" to nine defendants. They were also sentenced to 10,557 years in prison each for "attempted murder" (Abdulmubtalip Demir, Talha Güneş, Metin Akaltın, Yakup Şahin, Hakan Şahin, İbrahim Halil Alçay, Resul Demir, Hüseyin Tunç and Hacı Ali Durmaz). The trial of the fugitive defendants is continuing as their cases were separated.

The families of the deceased hold a commemoration ceremony on the 10th day of every month in front of the Train Station.

The peace rally participants who lost their lives in the massacre are: Abdülkadir Uyan, Metin Kürklü, Gökhan Akman, Orhan Işıktaş, Gülhan Karlı Elmascan, Yılmaz Elmascan, Nevzat Sayan, Bilgen Parlak, Hacı Kıvrak, Rıdvan Akgül, Rıdvan Akgül, Hacı Mehmet Şah Esin, Gökmen Dalmaç, Elif Kanlıoğlu, Hakan Dursun Akalın, Ercan Adsız, Ayşe Deniz, Berna Koç, Fatma Esen, Gülbahar Aydeniz, Eren Akın, Canberk Bakış, Tayfun Benol, Nizamettin Bağcı, Kasım Otur, Başak Sidar Çevik, Nilgün Çevik, Resul Yanar, Mehmet Ali Kılıç, Tekin Arslan, Sezen Vurmaz, Dilaver Karharman, Onur Tan, Umut Tan, Sarıgül Tüylü, Dilan Sarıkaya, Ali Kitapçı, İsmail Kızılçay, Muhammet Demir, Korkmaz Tedik, Veysel Atılgan, İbrahim Atılgan, Emine Ercan, Kübra Meltem Mollaoğlu, Meryem Bulut, Seyhan Yaylagül, Ebru Mavi, Ali Deniz Uzatmaz, Ziya Saygın, Vahdettin Özgan, Cemal Avşar, Ahmet Katurlu, Selim Örs, Azize Onat, Dicle Deli, Güney Doğan, Binali Korkmaz, Mehmet Zakir Karabulut, Leyla Çiçek, Metin Peşman, Mesut Mak, Adil Gür, Gökhan Gökbönü, Şebnem Yurtman, Osman Turan Bozacı, İdil Güneyi, Abdullah Erol, Mehmet Hayta, Özver Gökhan Arpaçay, Şirin Kılıçalp, Uygar Coşgun, Ahmed Alkhadi, Nurullah Erdoğan, Gözde Arslan, Aycan Kaya, Yunus Delice, Sevgi Öztekin, Mehmet Tevfik Dalgıç, Sevim Şinik, Emin Aydemir, Fatma Karabulut, Ramazan Tunç, Erol Ekici, Feyyat Deniz, Necla Duran, Osman Ervasa, Ramazan Çalışkan, Vedat Erkan, Abdülbari Şenci, Niyazi Büyüksütçü, Gazi Güray, Sabri Elmas, Erhan Avcı, Ümit Seylan, Serdar Ben, Nevzat Özbilgi, Hasan Baykara, Fatma Batur, Bedriye Batur, Ata Önder Atabay, Mustafa Budak, Ağa Bayar.

(AÖ/SD)