The 32-year-long quest for justice: What happened in the Madımak Massacre?

On July 2, 1993, a group chanting sharia slogans in Sivas burned 33 people, mostly Alevis and intellectuals, to death at the Madımak Hotel. So what happened in the Madımak Massacre, and what is the stage of the case?

33 intellectuals were invited to Sivas within the scope of the Pir Sultan Abdal Festival. The events were organized by the Pir Sultan Abdal Culture Association and that year the events were to take place between June 30 and July 2. Literary figures, academics and artists participated in this organization, which was held with the knowledge of the Sivas Governorship.

Among those who attended the event were names such as Aziz Nesin, Metin Altıok, Behçet Aysan, Asım Bezirci, Hasret Gültekin, Muhlis Akarsu. Aziz Nesin being targeted by Islamic circles at the time paved the way for the events to be “protested.”

A leaflet was distributed two days after the massacre. The leaflet mentioned Salman Rushdie’s book “The Satanic Verses”, which was published in the Aydınlık newspaper, of which Aziz Nesin was the editor-in-chief at the time, and targeted Nesin.

After Friday prayers on July 2, the crowd gathered outside the mosque and marched to the Cultural Center where the events were held. The protests, where slogans such as “Sivas will be a grave for secularists” were chanted, quickly turned into an attack by a crowd of thousands gathered in front of the Madımak Hotel. The attacking group tore down the newly erected “People’s Bards” statue and dragged it on the ground.

According to the report sent to the Ministry of Interior by the Governor of Sivas at the time, the number of attackers did not decrease as hours passed, on the contrary, it increased. Around 18:00, 15 thousand people came in front of the hotel. After hours of attacks, the Madımak Hotel was set on fire at 18:00. Despite the fire, security forces did not disperse the crowd, and the fire department was slow to intervene.

The aggressive crowd continued their chants. According to the voices reflected in the videos, one of them shouted “Come on, man!” to the attacker who had climbed to the first floor of the hotel, while another shouted “This is the fire of hell!” when the first flames appeared.

As a result of the fire that started when the hotel was set on fire, 35 people lost their lives, two of whom were hotel employees and 33 of whom were intellectuals. 58 people were rescued alive from the hotel. Aziz Nesin, who was tried to be taken down from the hotel with a firefighter ladder, fell to the ground when a firefighter pushed him. At this time, Cafer Erçakmak, a member of the City Council at the time, started hitting Aziz Nesin. Nesin, who was taken to the police van, was removed with difficulty. Poets Behçet Aysan, Uğur Kaynar, Metin Altınok, folk poets Hasret Gültekin, Nesimi Çimen, Muhlis Akarsu, Edibe Sulari, writer Asım Bezirci and cartoonist Asaf Koçak were among those who were burned to death.

At the time of the massacre, the mayor of Sivas was Temel Karamollaoğlu. In his statements immediately after the events, Karamollaoğlu said that he “made an effort to control” the crowd.

Aziz Nesin accused Karamollaoğlu of provoking the attacking group by shouting “May your ghaza be blessed.” Allegations that Karamollaoğlu instigated the crowd that started the fire were reported in newspapers at the time.

Karamollaoğlu, however, never accepted these allegations.

Over the years, he has been criticized for not taking a clear stance against the massacre.

Years later, Karamollaoğlu drew public backlash by claiming that the massacre had been “exaggerated.”

The Sivas Massacre case was one of the most controversial cases in Türkiye. Initially, 124 people were tried. 33 people were sentenced to death, but with the penal execution law, these sentences were commuted to aggravated life imprisonment.

Many of the defendants' lawyers rose to become members of parliament and ministers in conservative right-wing parties, and the number of people in prison dropped to 33 with the releases that took place over time.

The case of five fugitive defendants, including Cafer Erçakmak, was dropped in 2012 due to the statute of limitations.

The Sivas Massacre case was closed after 20 years in 2014 due to the statute of limitations.

The Chief Justice said, “There is no statute of limitations for crimes against humanity, but since those who committed this crime are not public officials but civilians, the case was decided to be dropped.”

Upon the decision, the prime minister of the time, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said, “May it be beneficial for our nation and our country. There were citizens who had been inside for years, and there were some who were illegally detained.”

Erdoğan also said that there were victims in the Sivas case:

“When I go to Sivas many times, there are 15, 18, 19-year-old girls crying because their fathers were sentenced to death without any fault. I don’t think it’s right to disregard these and provide a political service to one side. I don’t believe it’s right to go and demonstrate in front of the Ankara Courthouse and be a trumpeter for a certain ideology.”

Erdoğan's words drew a lot of reaction.

The verdict in the last trial of three fugitive defendants in relation to the massacre was given on September 14, 2023. The court panel decided to drop the case.

AKP Chairman and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has lifted the sentence of the “main perpetrator” Hayrettin Gül on the grounds of “continuous illness.” Erdoğan had previously pardoned the sentence of Ahmet Turan Kılıç, one of the convicts of the Madımak massacre.

Muhlis Akarsu – 45 years old, artist

• Muhibe Akarsu – 45 years old, Muhlis Akarsu’s wife

• Gulender Akça – 25 years old

• Metin Altıok – 53 years old, poet, writer, philosopher

• Mehmet Atay – 25 years old, journalist, photographer

• Sehergul Ates – 30 years old

• Behçet Sefa Aysan – 44 years old, poet

• Erdal Ayranci – 35 years old

• Asım Bezirci – 66 years old, researcher, writer

• Belkıs Çakır – 18 years old

• Serpil Canik – 19 years old

• Muammer Çiçek – 26 years old, actor

• Nesimi Çimen – 62 years old, poet, artist

• Carina Cuanna Thuijs – 23 years old, Dutch academic

• Serkan Dogan – 19 years old

• Hasret Gültekin – 22 years old poet, artist

• Murat Gunduz – 22 years old

• Gulsum Karababa – 22 years old

• Uğur Kaynar – 37 years old, poet

• Asaf Koçak – 35 years old, cartoonist

• Koray Kaya – 12 years old

• Menekse Kaya – 15 years old

• Handan Metin – 20 years old

• Sait Metin – 23 years old

• Huriye Ozkan – 22 years old

• Yesim Ozkan – 20 years old

• Ahmet Ozyurt – 21 years old

• Nurcan Sahin – 18 years old

• Ozlem Sahin – 17 years old

• Asuman Sivr i – 16 years old

• Yasemin Sivri – 19 years old

• Edibe Sulari – 40 years old, artist

• Inci Turk – 22 years old