Alevi Culture Centre and Cemevi UK (IAKM), organised a commemoration event for the 35 lost lives at the 1993 Sivas Madımat Hotel fire.
Meeting on the Stoke Newington Common Park, attenders stood in silent homage for a minute. IAKM’s president Tugay Hurman, in his speech said “Those who were allegedly killed at the fire in Madımak Hotel was a brutal hate crime. We need to be more united, collaborated and carry on teaching the significance of solidarity”. Turkey Emek Party president Selma Gürkan, in her speech said “23 years ago today we lost 35 precious lives as victims of a wild hate crime, I pledge my sincere condolences”.
The event was finalised with poems and stories told on Madımak.
What had happened?
The Sivas massacre, also known as Madımak, refers to the events of July 2, 1993 which resulted in the killing of 35 people, mostly Alevi intellectuals, and two hotel employees. Two people from the mob also died. The victims, who had gathered for a cultural festival in Sivas, Turkey, were killed when a mob of Salafists set fire to the hotel where the Alevi group had assembled.
Attending the conference was a left-wing Turkish intellectual Aziz Nesin who was vastly hated amongst religious Sunnis in Turkey as it was he who attempted to publish Salman Rushdie’s controversial novel The Satanic Verses, in Turkey. Thousands of Sunni locals in Sivas, after attending Friday prayers in a nearby mosque, marched to the hotel in which the conference was taking place and set the building on fire. The Turkish government sees this incident as being aimed at Aziz Nesin only, yet most agree that the target was the Alevis since many of the Alevi victims in the fire were very important artists and musicians. One musician, Hasret Gültekin, the most important and influential bağlama saz player in modern time was also killed in this fire. Gültekin is still considered a great loss for Turkish and Kurdish culture by Alevis and others.
