SARYA DENİZ

News Center - July 2 is known as the date of a massacre in Turkey. 33 people, including women, children, artists, writers were brutally killed on July 2, 1993, at the Hotel Madimak in Sivas province.

On that day, artists, writers and musicians gathered to celebrate the life of 16th-century Alevi poet Pir Sultan Abdal.

The names of intellectuals, who were killed at the Hotel Madımak, are as follows;

Muhibe Akarsu (35 years old, guest), Muhlis Akarsu (45 years old, artist), Gülender Akça (25 years old, artist), Metin Altıok (52 years old, poet and writer), Ahmet Alan (22 years old, artist), Mehmet Atay (25 years old, journalist), Sehergül Ateş (30 years old, artist), Behçet Aysan (44 years old, poet), Erdal Ayrancı (35 years old, director), Asım Bezirci (66 years old, researcher and writer), Belkıs Çakır (18 years old, artist), Serpil Canik (19 years old, artist), Muammer Çiçek (26 years old, actor), Nesimi Çimen (67 years old, poet and artist), Carina Cuanna (23 years old, journalist from the Netherlands), Serkan Doğan (19 years old, artist), Hasret Gültekin (23 years old, poet and artist), Murat Gündüz (22 years old, artist), Gülsüm Karababa (22 years old, artist), Uğur Kaynar (37 years old, poet), Asaf Koçak  (35 years old, cartoonist), Koray Kaya (12 years old, child), Menekşe Kaya (17 years old, artist), Handan Metin (20 years old, artist), Sait Metin (23 years old, artist), Huriye Özkan (22 years old, artist), Yeşim Özkan (20 years old, artist), Ahmet Özyurt (21 years old, artist), Nurcan Şahin (18 years old, artist), Özlem Şahin (17 years old, artist), Asuman Sivri (16 years old, artist), Yasemin Sivri (19 years old, artist), Edibe Sulari (40 years old, artist), İnci Türk (22 years old, artist).

The oldest of the 33 people was 60-year-old Asım Bezirci and the youngest one was 12-year-old Koray Kaya.

How was it start?

Two days before the massacre, religious fanatics distributed leaflets in Sivas. They wrote about Salman Rushdie’s novel “The Satanic Verses”, which was published by Aydınlık newspaper and they targeted Aziz Nesin, who was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper at that time.

On July 2, thousands of Sunni residents of Sivas marched to the hotel after attending Friday prayers in a nearby mosque. Nobody stopped them. They set the building on fire and killed 33 people. Few of the perpetrators of the massacre stood trial.

Commemoration on its 28th anniversary

Today, people across Turkey will go to Sivas to commemorate those who killed at the Hotel Madımak on the 28^th anniversary of the Madımak Massacre. People will hold the photos of 33 people gather in Cemevi (Alevis’ house of gathering) located in the Alibaba neighborhood and they will march to the place where the massacre had taken place.

After laying carnations in front of the Madımak Hotel, people will give speeches there. After the speeches, the people will go to Sivas’ Yıldızeli, Şarkışla, E. Hüyük, Ortaköy, Beyyurdu and Kavak villages to memorize the victims of the Madımak Massacre.