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Turkey Commemorates 15th Anniversary Of Massacre Of Alevi Intellectuals In Sivas By Islamists
Tens of thousands of people attended the commemoration service today for the 37 people killed in Turkey's central province of Sivas on July 2, 1993. Alevi organizations, politicians, trade unions, professional chambers, non-governmental organizations, journalists, and many artists and intellectuals met in Sivas today to commemorate the deaths, and repeated their demand to turn the Madimak Hotel, where the massacre took place, into a “tolerance and enlightenment museum”. The AKP government has been criticized for not granting permission for the hotel to be turned into a museum. On July 2, 1993, thousands of fundamentalist Islamists got out of mosques in Sivas, surrounded the Madimak Hotel, where many Alevi artists and intellectuals were staying for the Pir Sultan Abdal Festival, and set the hotel on fire burning to death 37 Alevis, among them teenagers. Most of the perpetrators of the massacre have not been brought to justice, and PM Tayyip Erdogan has not once condemned the massacre. Commemoration services will be held in Istanbul and Ankara as well as other Turkish cities. In Istanbul the service will be hosted by Alevi organizations, the Pir Sultan Abdal Association, and the Alevi Unions Federation. Alevis are the second largest religious community in Turkey, and their interpretation of Islam differs from Sunnis'. Alevism represents a moderate and liberal wing of Islam. Alevis demand equal treatment with Sunnis, to be recognized as a unique faith and freedom of religious expression. The Madimak Massacre in Sivas is among the most violent acts against Alevis in Turkey. Source: Hurriyet, Milliyet, Turkey, July 2, 2008
Posted at: 2008-07-02
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