The Blue Market massacre () refers to the terrorist attack of

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, isDespite the PKK's 12th Congress announcing plans for total organisational dissolution, the PKK has not yet been dissolved de facto or de jure. a Kurds, Kurdish militant political organization and armed ...

(PKK) on 13 March 1999 which resulted in the killing of 13 civilians.

Attack

The attack happened on a busy Saturday afternoon in Blue Market () a small sized local

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

in Goztepe, located in the Asian side of

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

. Three attackers wearing

ski mask A balaclava, also called a ski mask, is a form of cloth headgear designed to expose only part of the face, usually the eyes and mouth. Depending on style and how it is worn, only the eyes, mouth and nose, or just the front of the face are unpro ...

s arrived the scene by car and entered the ground floor of the building pouring

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...

and throwing

Molotov cocktail A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see '') is a hand-thrown incendiary weapon consisting of a frangible container filled with flammable substances and equipped with a Fuse (explosives), fuse (typically a glass bottle filled wit ...

s. The attackers fled on foot, pursued by police officers. The blaze swept rapidly upwards and engulfed the five-storey building, shattering windows and driving shoppers up staircases in search of safety. Despite the effort of the

emergency services Emergency services and rescue services are organizations that ensure public safety, security, and health by addressing and resolving different emergencies. Some of these agencies exist solely for addressing certain types of emergencies, while ot ...

deployed to the scene, 13 people, mostly women and employees of the store, were killed and 5 injured.

Aftermath

President

Süleyman Demirel Sami Süleyman Gündoğdu Demirel (; 1 November 1924 – 17 June 2015) was a Turkish people, Turkish politician, engineer, and statesman who served as the List of Presidents of Turkey, 9th President of Turkey from 1993 to 2000. He previously serv ...

condemned the attack as "insidious" and the Prime Minister,

Bülent Ecevit Mustafa Bülent Ecevit (; 28 May 1925 – 5 November 2006) was a Turkish politician, statesman, poet, writer, scholar, and journalist. He served as the Prime Minister of Turkey four times between 1974 and 2002. He served as prime minister in 197 ...

, said it was part of a campaign to disrupt national elections on 18 April 1999. An angry crowd outside of the rumbles of building gathered and chanting "Death to the

PKK The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, isDespite the PKK's 12th Congress announcing plans for total organisational dissolution, the PKK has not yet been dissolved de facto or de jure. a Kurdish militant political organization and armed gue ...

", protesting the attack.

Perpetrators

On 23 March 1999, Turkish Chief of the General Directorate of Security,

Necati Bilican Necati Bilican (born 1941, Özbaşı, Posof, Ardahan, Turkey) is a retired Turkish civil servant. He was governor of the OHAL state-of-emergency region from 1995 to 1997, and served three terms as Chief of the General Directorate of Security (Apri ...

announced that four suspects, including the planner, have been apprehended in connection with the attack. On 14 July 1999 the four defendants, one of whom is a woman, were brought to the court and admitted in their initial statements to having planned the incident. The public prosecutor asked for the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

for all of the defendants. After a long trial process three suspects were sentenced to life imprisonment without parole and one into

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

since Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2002.

References

{{Reflist Massacres in 1999 March 1999 in Turkey March 1999 crimes Terrorist incidents in Istanbul Department store fires Massacres in Turkey Kadıköy 1999 crimes in Turkey 1990s in Istanbul Kurdistan Workers' Party attacks 1999 murders in Turkey Shopping mall bombings in Turkey 20th-century mass murder in Turkey Building bombings in Istanbul 1999 building bombings Arson in 1999 Mass murder in Istanbul Terrorist incidents in Turkey in 1999 Building and structure arson attacks in Turkey Persecution of Turkish people

Attack

Aftermath

Perpetrators

See also

References