The Taksim Square massacre occurred on May 1, 1977 at Taksim Square in Istanbul .
Content
- 1 Background
- 2 Events
- 2.1 Affected
- 2.2 Criminal proceedings
- 2.3 Counterguerilla
- 3 notes
- 4 References
Background
For the first time in the Ottoman Empire, the first of May was celebrated in 1909 in the city of Skopje . In Istanbul, celebrations were first held in 1912. In the period between 1928 and 1975, the holiday was not celebrated [1] . On May 1, 1976, the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of Turkey (DISK) organized the first May rally in Taksim Square after the prohibition period, in which a large number of people took part [2] .
Events
About 500 thousand people took part in the celebration of Labor Day in 1977 [3] . The rally, again initiated by DISK, gathered almost all Turkish left groups. He was supported even by many high-ranking members of the Republican People's Party , led by Bulent Ecevit, one of the country's two leading parties: its deputies joined the demonstration, and the Istanbul municipality, headed by a member of the RNP, Ahmet Iswan, expressed his support to her.
People gathered in the square were shot at by unknown people. According to witnesses, fire was fired from the roof of a building owned by a water company and the Marmara Hotel, which at that time was the tallest building in Istanbul. After the shelling, the police tried to disperse the crowd in the square using heavy equipment and water cannons. Due to shelling and police actions, a stampede appeared on the square. Most of the people who were killed and injured that day suffered precisely as a result of the stampede.
Affected
According to various sources, from 34 to 42 people died as a result of the incident, another 126 to 220 were injured. In the list of deaths compiled by the police, 34 people were mentioned [4] . In a similar list compiled by the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of Turkey - 36, but part of the list was different. Fakhrettin Erdogan, a DISK spokesman, said that only two different lists mentioned 42 different people. [5]
According to the autopsy, 4 people died from sniper fire, another 27 as a result of a crush, the death of three more could be both shelling and a crush. Some witnesses claimed that an armored personnel carrier moved one of the dead [6] .
Criminal Case
After the incident, about 500 demonstrators were detained, 93 of them were charged. Later, all detainees were released [7] . The prosecutor investigating the case stated that about 20 unknown snipers on the roof of the water company were detained, and there is no mention of detained snipers in official documents [8] .
Counterguerilla
Since neither the organizers nor the snipers were found, there were suggestions that the counterguerilla was behind the shooting. One of the first to say this was the politician Bulent Ecevit , who was at that time in opposition [9] .
Others believed that the execution was organized by the CIA [7] .
Notes
- ↑ Mavioglu, Ertugrul . 30 yıl sonra kanlı 1 Mayıs (3) ( tur .) , Radikal (May 1, 2007). Archived on May 3, 2007. Date of treatment July 1, 2008.
- ↑ Mavioglu, Ertugrul . 30 yıl sonra kanlı 1 Mayıs (2) ( tur .) , Radikal (April 30, 2007). Archived on September 30, 2007. Date of treatment July 1, 2008.
- ↑ Police Crashes May Day Rally , bianet (May 1, 2007). Date of treatment July 1, 2008.
- ↑ Özcan, Emine . 1977 1 Mayıs Katliamı Aydınlatılsın ( tur .) , Bianet (April 28, 2006). Archived on August 7, 2011. Date of treatment July 7, 2008.
- ↑ Mavioglu, Ertugrul . 30 yıl sonra kanlı 1 Mayıs (4) ( tur .) , Radikal (May 2, 2007). Archived on September 30, 2007. Date of treatment July 1, 2008.
- ↑ Mavioglu, Ertugrul . 30 yıl sonra kanlı 1 Mayıs (1) ( tur .) , Radikal (April 29, 2007). Archived on September 30, 2007. Date of treatment July 1, 2008.
- ↑ 1 2 Mavioglu, Ertugrul . 30 yıl sonra kanlı 1 Mayıs (7) ( tur .) , Radikal (May 5, 2007). Archived on May 15, 2007. Date of treatment July 1, 2008.
- ↑ Mavioglu, Ertugrul . 30 yıl sonra kanlı 1 Mayıs (9) ( tur .) , Radikal (May 7, 2007). Archived on September 30, 2007. Date of treatment July 1, 2008.
- ↑ Lucy Komisar , Turkey's terrorists: a CIA legacy lives on , The Progressive , April 1997.