The Sivas massacre () or Madımak massacre () refers to an act of mob
arson taking place on July 2, 1993 at the Hotel Madımak (''Otel Madımak'') in
Sivas,
Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
, which resulted in the killing of 37 people, mostly
Alevi intellectuals.
Two perpetrators also died during the incident. The victims, who had gathered in the hotel for the
Pir Sultan Abdal festival, were killed when a mob set fire to the hotel.
Incident
The attack took place not long after traditional
Friday prayers, when the mob broke through police barricades to surround the Hotel Madımak, where artists, writers and musicians had gathered to celebrate the life of 16th-century Alevi poet
Pir Sultan Abdal. The hotel was set alight, and the fire claimed 37 lives, including those musicians and poets attending the festival.
Attending the conference was left-wing Turkish intellectual
Aziz Nesin, who was hated by many Muslims in Turkey because of his attempt to publish
Salman Rushdie
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie ( ; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British and American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern wor ...
's controversial novel, ''
The Satanic Verses'', regarded by many Muslims as blasphemous.
Thousands of
Sunni
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Mu ...
residents of Sivas, after attending Friday prayers in a nearby mosque, marched to the hotel in which the conference was taking place and set the building on fire. While the Turkish government portrayed the attack as aimed at Aziz Nesin, Alevi commentators argue that the target were the Alevis, as the mob also destroyed a statue depicting
Pir Sultan Abdal erected the day before.
Many well-known Alevi intellectuals, poets and musicians were killed in the fire, including
Hasret Gültekin,
Metin Altıok,
Asım Bezirci,
Behçet Aysan,
Nesimi Çimen and
Muhlis Akarsu. Aziz Nesin managed to escape the fire over a ladder. After the firefighters recognized who he was, they started to attack him, but he ran away.
Aftermath
The response from the security forces at the time and afterwards was weak. The assault took place over eight hours without any intervention by the police, military or fire department. Alevis and most intellectuals in Turkey argue that the incident was triggered by the local government as flyers and leaflets were published and given out for days before the incident. The Turkish government refers to the Sivas Madımak Hotel incident as an attack on intellectuals but refuses to see it as an incident directed towards Alevis. The events surrounding the massacre were captured by TV cameras and broadcast all over the world. Every year, during the anniversary of the massacre, various Alevi organizations call for the arrest of those responsible.
Two of the suspects, including Cafer Erçakmak died while on trial. In March 2012, the Sivas massacre case against the remaining five defendants was dropped, owing to the statute of limitations. However, this case is still being appealed.
Indictments, trial and sentences
The event was seen as a major assault on free speech and
human rights in Turkey, and significantly deepened the rift between religious and
secular segments of the society. A day after the incident, 35 people were arrested. Then the number of detainees increased to 190. A total of 124 out of the 190 defendants were charged with "attempting to establish a religious state by changing the constitutional order" and were indicted on charges. The first hearing of the case, publicly known as the Sivas Massacre Trial, Ankara State Security Court No. 1, was held on 21 October 1993. On 26 December 1994 a verdict was reached in the case of the 124 defendants: 15 years in prison for 22 suspects, 10 years in prison for 3 defendants, 3 years and 9 months for 54 suspects, 2 years and 4 months for 6 suspects, and the acquittal of 37 of the defendants. Another 14 suspects were sentenced to 15 years in prison. The remaining 33 defendants were charged with 35 counts of
murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
. After lengthy court proceedings, the
State Security Court sentenced the 33 defendants to death on 28 November 1997 for their roles in the
massacre
A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians Glossary of French words and expressions in English#En masse, en masse by an armed ...
; 31 of these sentences were upheld in a 2001 appeal. When Turkey overturned the death penalty just over a year later in 2002, the sentences were commuted. Each defendant received 35
life sentences, one for each murder victim and additional time for other crimes. These 31 convicts were the only ones still serving time for the crimes; the other defendants were paroled early or released after completing their sentences. In January 2020, Ahmet Turan Kılıc, who at first was sentenced to death for his involvement in the Sivas massacre, was granted a commutation of his sentence by President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...
on the grounds of ill-health. As a result his sentence was commuted. Kılıç died in 2021. In September 2023, Erdoğan commuted the sentence of Hayrettin Gül for the same reason. In the case where the fugitive defendants Murat Sonkur, Eren Ceylan, and Murat Karataş are being tried, the case was dropped in September 2023 on the grounds that the 30-year
statute of limitations
A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In ...
had expired.
Commemoration
Each year on the anniversary of the massacre, demonstrators hold protests and vigils to commemorate the victims of the fire.
Dario Fo remembered the massacre in his speech accepting the
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...
in 1997. Many wish to see the hotel, which has since re-opened, declared a memorial and turned into a museum.
In 2008 a government minister indicated that it would be turned into an Alevi cultural center, but this has yet to occur. In June 2010, the Minister of Work and Social Security announced that the money for buying the hotel had been transferred, and that the Ministry would provide additional resources for restoration. Following the court ruling on 23 November 2010, Hotel Madımak has become a public entity for a compensation of 5,601,000 TL to the hotel owners.
Denial
Islamic-conservative newspaper ''
Yeni Akit'' published a front-page story on 23 July 2012 declaring the Sivas massacre a "19 Year Lie", claiming the victims had been killed by gunshots rather than fire on the basis of morgue photos it claimed were previously unpublished. The claims were debunked, and widely condemned.
See also
*
List of massacres in Turkey
*
Xenophobia and discrimination in Turkey
*
Istanbul pogrom
References
External links
Can Dündar's documentary film about the event
{{Authority control
Massacres in 1993
1993 murders in Turkey
July 1993 crimes
July 1993 in Turkey
Massacres in Turkey
Alevi massacres
History of Sivas
Building and structure arson attacks in Turkey
Attacks on hotels in Asia
20th-century mass murder in Turkey
Persecution of intellectuals
Arson in 1993
1990s fires in Asia
Arson deaths
Attacks on buildings and structures in 1993
Attacks on commercial buildings in Turkey
Hotel fires in Asia
Terrorist incidents in Turkey in 1993
Islamic terrorist incidents in 1993
Islamic terrorism in Turkey
Terrorist incidents involving incendiary devices
Hotel arson attacks