No justice for victims of Maraş massacre for 43 years

Between December 19 and 26, 1978, a pogrom-like massacre of the Kurdish-Alevi population by right-wing Islamists and paramilitaries took place in the city of Maraş. For days, a fascist mob raged under the slogan of Imam Mustafa Yıldız: “Fasting and praying will not make you a pilgrim; whoever kills an Alevi gains as much in charity as if he were to make five pilgrimages to Mecca. All our brothers in faith must stand up against the government, communists and infidels. We must purge our neighborhoods of Alevis and infidel Sunni supporters of the CHP.” In Alevi neighborhoods, stores were systematically attacked, people were dragged out of their homes and massacred in bestial ways. Women were raped and children and the elderly murdered in cold blood.

The fact that the Alevi houses had been meticulously marked in Nazi fashion days earlier created the impression of a targeted and well-planned mass murder. The state did not intervene for days, security forces retreated to their homes and watched from their windows. Officially, 111 people died in the attacks; according to unofficial figures, between 500 and 1,000 people died. Hundreds more Alevis were injured in the attacks.

The perpetrators of Maraş massacre have never been brought to justice, and the pogrom, like other massacres, has never found a place in Turkey’s current historiography. A memorial in the city, which is now almost exclusively inhabited by Sunni Turks, is still missing today.