On 2 July 1993, an angry mob torched the Madımak Hotel, killing 37 people, mostly Alevi artists and scholars who were there to attend a conference hosted by the Pir Sultan Abdal Cultural Association (PSAKD).

In attendance was Aziz Nesin, a left-wing Turkish short story writer, hated among religious Sunnis in Turkey, who had become the target of attacks for attempting to translate Salman Rushdie’s controversial novel “The Satanic Verses” into Turkish.

A group of radical Islamists, having been provoked by several local political leaders, gathered in front of the hotel following Friday prayer and accused conference participants of being infidels.

Thirty-three attendees, two hotel staff members and two protesters died in the fire. Nesin was able to escape because the attackers initially failed to recognize him.

In a controversial move, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2020 used his presidential power to pardon a man who was given an aggravated life sentence for his role in the Sivas massacre.

A number of lawyers who defended the suspects in the massacre later became politicians in Erdoğan’s ruling party.

Muhlis Akarsu (45), Muhibe Akarsu (44), Gülender Akça (25), Metin Altıok (53), Mehmet Atay (25), Sehergül Ateş (29), Behçet Sefa Aysan (44), Erdal Ayrancı (35), Asım Bezirci (66), Belkıs Çakır (18), Serpil Canik (19), Muammer Çiçek (26), Nesimi Çimen (62), Carina Cuanna Thuijs (23), Serkan Doğan (19), Hasret Gültekin (22), Murat Gündüz (22), Gülsüm Karababa (22), Uğur Kaynar (37), Asaf Koçak (35), Koray Kaya (12), Menekşe Kaya (15), Handan Metin (20), Sait Metin (23), Huriye Özkan (22), Yeşim Özkan (20), Ahmet Özyurt (21), Nurcan Şahin (18), Özlem Şahin (17), Asuman Sivri (16), Yasemin Sivri (19), Edibe Sulari (40), İnci Türk (22) as well as the hotel employees Ahmet Öztürk (21) und Kenan Yılmaz (21).