Maraş Massacre...

It has been exactly 38 years since the Maraş Massacre, a massacre covered up as a “state secret” by the Turkish state that has a history full of massacres against various ethnic groups. The Maraş Massacre against the Kurdish Alevis is just one in a long line of bloody massacres the Turkish state has imposed upon civilians since Ottoman times.

The Maraş Massacre is passing into its 39th year. It hasn’t been solved, the masterminds haven’t been punished, and despite decades have passed, it is easy to see that the painful wounds it left on Maraş Alevis and all Alevis in the country in general are still fresh. The perpetrators who organized and carried out the massacre have never been on trial, which is enough to expose the massacrist face of the Turkish state.

150 ALEVI KURDS MASSACRED IN ONE WEEK

As is common knowledge, December 19, 1978 marked the start of the massacre attacks on Kurdish Alevis in Maraş by gangs of nationalist Grey Wolves and political Islamists utilized by CIA and the deep state. The attacks on Kurdish Alevis in Maraş continued for a whole week until December 26, 1978 and turned into a bloody massacre.

In the Kurdish Alevi “hunt” started by counterguerilla units and fascist gangs in the streets of Maraş, Alevis were massacred under state supervision for a week. Homes and work places of Alevis were attacked. Official records claim 111 people lost their lives in these attacks, but in truth 150 people were massacred. 552 homes and 289 work placeces and vehicles were burned and destroyed. The planners of the Maraş Massacre against Kurdish Alevis were hidden, dubbed a “state secret”.

MESSAGE TO REVOLUTIONARIES THROUGH THE ALEVI MASSACRE

With the implementation of the massacre plans and the slaughter, 80% of Alevis, who comprised 70 to 80% of the city’s population at the time, were forced to move out. One of the goals of the bloody massacre was to act as a message to Alevis who supported the rising revolutionary movements in the country. Maraş was a Alevi-intensive region where Alevis and Sunnis lived together. The deep state (MİT) and the CIA wanted to utilize the polarization that developed over ideological controversy and set the plans for the massacre in motion.

The massacre was committed one month after the Kurdish Freedom Movement had laid its foundations. With it, the state wanted to give a direct message of “annihilation” to the Kurdish Freedom Struggle as well.

ALL WHO HAVE A ROLE IN THE MASSACRE

After the massacre, the then-Interior Minister İrfan Özaydınlı formed a special unit to investigate the massacre. This unit discovered important information, but the information was hidden, dubbed a “state secret”. The then-Public Prosecutor Dündar Saner prepared a report which laid bare the details on how the massacre was organized and implemented. The massacre was covered up as a “state secret” and it hasn’t been solved still.

According to reports, the massacre was planned by 4 MİT members, including the MİT legal counsel who was an in-law relative of Alparslan Türkeş, and CIA agent Alexander Peck who went to Maraş before the massacre. The involvement of Alparslan Türkeş, the MİT officials, AP and MHP provincial branch chairs, businessmen, landowners and the Susurluk gang including Abdullah Çatlı and Haluk Kırcı were covered up, dubbed a “state secret”.

THE MASSACRE COVERED UP

Also among the planners of the massacre were the Justica Party (AP) Provincial Branch Chair Faruk Kadıoğlu and the then-Mayor of Maraş Ahmet Uncu. The lawsuit on the massacre continued into 1991. 804 people on trial received varying prison sentences, while the 68 people who had important roles in the massacre were never caught, or investigated.

Those who received prison sentences were released in April 1991, due to the Anti-terror Act passed by Turgut Özal. And the case file for the Maraş Massacre was closed as such.

TOMORROW: Week-long Alevi Slaughter