1 May 1977: Who is hiding the truth, and why?

Click to read the article in Turkish

Here I will be remembering 1 May 1977 and exposing its connections with today as we proceed into the future... There are things from that day that are hidden in my mind and heart. Not experiences, but feelings I carry. Feelings that have merged with my various experiences, and left behind a kind of residue.

From 1 May 1977, up to the most recent mass murders, mass deaths in Suruç and at the Ankara Railway Station... After all these massacres it is the victims who are blamed and put on trial.

Political powers hide this evil, hold the truth locked up, and if voices are raised, those in power retaliate by raising their voices even louder. As if joining forces, all the machines of political power work together to generate fear.

500 thousand people

I picture in my mind the events of 1 May 1977. The rally is much larger than anything we have seen recently. The population is only half that of the current population of Turkey, but the demonstration is attended by five-hundred thousand people, according to the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK), or one-hundred thousand according to official figures.

Labourers, teachers, students, and public workers enter Taksim Square as one great collective body. Emerging from different cocoons, flowing along different riverbeds, hundreds of thousands of workers and labourers from all different segments of the working class fill the square.

All together they are the vessel of a progressive movement in history! In their minds they carry dreams of a free and equal Turkey, and in their hearts the feeling of this idea!

It is sunny, but...

The weather is mild and sunny, a true May Day. Wrapped around the tongues of many is the tune: "The First of May, the First of May, a workers and labourers festival day." The speeches overrun, the day turns to night. Then comes the moment when the excitement of hundreds and thousands is reduced to the mourning of 34 lives.
Death pushes life aside. The darkness mentioned in the First of May anthem emerges. "What the day brings today is oppression, tyranny, and blood." Somewhere, a gun is fired. Five labourers are shot.

The massive body of the working class is shaken; the sudden movement of the collective body leads to the crushing and suffocation of those left behind. We do not know the emotional state in which those who were injured, those who were in a state of profound shock made it home that day. What we do know is the official death toll: 34.

Unanswered questions

We lost 34 from within the hundreds of thousands of living bodies that day. Although nearly half a century has passed, the truth behind the massacre of 1 May 1977 remains in the dark. Who were the people that committed this crime, and why?

Why is the truth being hidden? And by whom?

The families of those who were killed and injured have been searching for answers to these questions for decades. They still haven't found any.

Yet one thing is for certain: Suspects or defendants are being protected and shielded, cases are being dragged on for years until they reach the statute of limitations and can be dropped.

This reality should drive us, as citizens, to do everything in our power. How can any individual, any group, any social entity be protected in the face of violation of human rights in Turkey?

Pursuing Justice

The answer to this question is to be found in the pursuit of justice, in the fight against impunity, in the encounters of different groups woven purposefully and tightly together, in never ceasing to speak and write, and in being involved, collectively, in the fields of union rights and human rights.

I look at the list of the 34 people who lost their lives; their names, ages and occupations listed one under the next. Falling prey to the union regulations that confine labourers to their own occupational branches, thus isolating them from one another, my eyes seek out the teachers, and then the students.

Then I am ashamed of myself for this, and I read all their names, out loud, one by one.

Their struggle will light the way for ours!

We shall carry the struggles of times past into the future, enriching it with the contributions of the new generation, in the wholehearted belief that the struggles of labour, democracy, peace, and freedom, are struggles to be undertaken together!

We shall see the day when life prevails over death! (NK/TY/APA/VK)

This text was created and maintained with the financial support of the European Union provided under Etkiniz EU Programme. Its contents are the sole responsibility of "IPS Communication Foundation" and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

CLICK - 1 May 1977 e-book is online

The ones who lost their lives on 1 May '77

The ones whose loved ones we could talk to:

Ahmet Gözükara (34, teacher), Ali Sidal (18, worker), Bayram Çıtak (37, teacher), Bayram Eyi (50, construction worker), Diran Nigiz (34, worker), Ercüment Gürkut (27, university student), Hacer İpek Saman (24, university student), Hamdi Toka (35, Seyyar Satıcı), Hasan Yıldırım (31, Uzel worker), Hikmet Özkürkçü (39, teacher), Hüseyin Kırkın (26, worker), Jale Yeşilnil (17, high school student), Kadir Balcı (35, salesperson), Kıymet Kocamış (Kadriye Duman, 25, hemşire), Kahraman Alsancak (29, Uzel worker), Kenan Çatak (30, teacher), Mahmut Atilla Özbelen (26, worker-university student), Mustafa Elmas (33, teacher), Mehmet Ali Genç (60, guard), Mürtezim Oltulu (42, worker), Nazan Ünaldı (19, university student), Nazmi Arı (26, police officer), Niyazi Darı (24, worker-university student), Ömer Narman (31, teacher), Rasim Elmas (41, cinema laborer), Sibel Açıkalın (18, university student), Ziya Baki (29, Uzel worker),

The ones whose loved ones we did/could not talk to:

Aleksandros Konteas (57, worker), Bayram Sürücü (worker), Garabet Akyan (54, worker), Hatice Altun (21), Leyla Altıparmak (19, hemşire), Meral Cebren Özkol (43, nurse), Mustafa Ertan (student), Ramazan Sarı (11, primary school student)

The ones only the names of whom are known: Ali Yeşilgül, Mehmet Ali Kol, Özcan Gürkan, Tevfik Beysoy, Yücel Elbistanlı

The one whose name is unknown: A 35-year-old man

The voices of those who lost their loved ones: 1 May '77 and impunity

Political panorama of Turkey-1977

Film industry worker Rasim Elmas, 41, died in Taksim

Construction Worker Bayram Eyi, 50, died in Taksim

Teacher Bayram Çıtak, 37, died in Taksim

High School Student Jale Yeşilnil, 17, died in Taksim

Teacher Kenan Çatak, 31, died in Taksim

Teacher Ahmet Gözükara, 33, died in Taksim

Teacher Hikmet Özkürkçü, 39, died in Taksim

Student-laborer Niyazi Darı, 24, died in Taksim