The Bahçelievler massacre is the name given to the events of October 9, 1978 in

Bahçelievler, Ankara Bahçelievler is a neighbourhood in the municipality and district of Çankaya District, Çankaya, Ankara Province, Turkey. Its population is 10,638 (2022). The name means 'houses with gardens' in Turkish language, Turkish. The neighborhood was kn ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, when seven university students, members of the

Workers' Party of Turkey Workers' Party of Turkey (''Türkiye İşçi Partisi'') was a Turkish political party, founded the 13 February 1961. It became the first socialist party in Turkey to win representation in the national parliament. It was banned twice (after the mi ...

, were assassinated by ultra-nationalists including

Grey Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

' leader

Abdullah Çatlı Abdullah Çatlı (1 June 1956 – 3 November 1996) was a Turkish secret government agent, as well as a contract killer for the National Intelligence Organization (MİT). He led the Grey Wolves, the youth branch of the Nationalist Movement Party ...

, and

Haluk Kırcı Haluk Kırcı (born 1958) is a Turkish militant, who was involved in the Susurluk scandal. His father and mother were Şükrü and Hafize, respectively. Known among the ultra-nationalist activists (Grey Wolves) under the nickname "Idi Amin",Gans ...

. The assailants, who were armed with a number of weapons, were reportedly surprised to find the "revolutionary" students unarmed in their apartment. Five of the students were killed in the apartment, and two were taken away by car and killed nearby.

Background

Other

massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...

s during the wave of political violence include the March 16, 1978 Massacre when, at the exit of a school, police and civilian fascists bombed and shot leftist students in Beyazıt Square, killing seven; the December 23–24, 1978 Kahramanmaraş Massacre, when 111

Alevi Alevism or Anatolian Alevism (; tr, Alevilik, ''Anadolu Aleviliği'' or ''Kızılbaşlık''; ; az, Ələvilik) is a local Islamic tradition, whose adherents follow the mystical Alevi Islamic ( ''bāṭenī'') teachings of Haji Bektash Veli, w ...

people were killed, according to the official figures (the actual number has been estimated to be much higher). According to

Kendal Nezan Kendal Nezan is a French-Kurdish nuclear physicist and president of the Kurdish Institute of Paris. He was born in Turkey. He is also a board member of the Washington Kurdish Institute. In 1975, Nezan established the France-Kurdistan Society, w ...

" bdullah Çatlıis reckoned to have been one of the main perpetrators of underground operations carried out by the Turkish branch of the Gladio organisation and had played a key role in the bloody events of the period 1976-1980 which paved the way for the military coup d’état of September 1980. As the young head of the far-right Grey Wolves militia, he had been accused, among other things, of the murder of seven left-wing students."

He was seen in the company of ''Avanguardia Nazionale'' founder

Stefano Delle Chiaie Stefano Delle Chiaie (13 September 1936, Caserta – 10 September 2019, Rome) was an Italian neo-fascist terrorist. He was the founder of ''Avanguardia Nazionale'', a member of '' Ordine Nuovo'', and founder of Lega nazionalpopolare. He went on ...

while touring Latin America and on a visit to Miami in September 1982.

Responsibility

and Mahmut Korkmaz accepted responsibility for the massacre under the Repentance Law * Bünyamin Adanalı and Ünal Osmanağaoğlu were also convicted Hurriyet Daily News, 11 July 2012
‘Bahçelievler Massacre’ convicts may be released
/ref> * According to

Soner Yalçın Soner Yalçın (born January 1, 1966) is a Turkish journalist and writer. The co-founder of the news website odatv, he was arrested in February 2011 along with other odatv journalists and charged with links to the Ergenekon organization. He was ...

and Doğan Yurdakul's 1997 book, Ercüment Gedikli and Kürşat Poyraz took active roles, while Ömer Özcan and Duran Demirkıran were lookouts. * İbrahim Çiftçi: A bomb in a cafe in Alsancak suffered was killed in the assassination.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bahcelievler massacre Political violence in Turkey Massacres in Turkey 1978 in Turkey Events in Ankara Grey Wolves (organization) attacks Mass murder in 1978 Massacres in 1978 1978 murders in Turkey 1970s in Ankara Student massacres

Background

Responsibility

See also

References