Sivas Massacre remembered on 21st anniversary

About 10,000 people gathered in front of the Madimak Hotel in Sivas province on 02 July 1993 to protest a meeting of Alawi intellectuals. The crowd that had just left the Friday Prayer set the hotel on fire leaving 33 intellectuals, and 2 hotel staff dead, mostly burned or smothered. The incident also caused the deaths of 2 attackers. The government and security forces have since been criticised of not preventing the massacre.

Commemoration meetings have been taking place throughout the country on the 21st anniversary of the massacre. 33 suspects were sentenced to death in 2000 in the first stage of the Case with the allegation of ‘an attempt on the secular constitutional order.’ The sentences were later commuted to life imprisonment after Turkey abolished capital punishment. Also, 14 others had been given jail terms of up to 15 years.