İSTANBUL - Kamil Tekin Sürek, a witness of the Beyazıt Massacre said that universities were being bombed back in 1978, and now the same mentality continues with the appointment of trustees.

 

The nationalist Front consisting of Justice Party (AP), Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and Trust Party (GP) along with racist counter-insurgency groups started attacking the universities to stop the revolutionary youth movement. A group of students who wanted to exit from school from Süleymaniye Gate were directed to Beyazıt Square by the police in 1978, where they were bombed by these groups saying that the Beyazıt Square will be the graves of the communists. While Law and Economics students Hatice Özen, Cemil Sönmez, Baki Ekiz, Turan Ören, Abdullah Şimşek, Hamit Akıl and Murat Kurt lost their lives in the attack, more than 50 students were injured.

 

The Beyazıt Massacre case continued for years in courts have been dropped due to prescription by the İstanbul 6th High Criminal Court on October 20, 2008. The decision was upheld by the  1st Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals in March 2010 and like many cases, Beyazıt Massacre case resulted with impunity. No one was punished.

 

We spoke to Kamil Tekin Sürek  both the witness of the massacre and the lawyer of the case, about what happened that day and the trial process which ended with impunity. 

 

Reminding that the Nationalist Front and the coalition partner MHP was targeting revolutionary students in the universities those days, Sürek told that the university administration was working with the police and the universities were under siege. Underlining that revolutionary students could not even go to school those days, SÜrek said the universities were under siege and with a meeting in March 1, 1978, they decided to go back to school.

 

THE ATTACKS WERE REPELLED

 

Sürek stated that they came together on March 1 and started walking towards the school and they were attacked by the police and said that they managed to enter the school despite all the attacks. Sürek said, “When we marched into the school, we were attacked by the fascists. They gathered in front of the statue and they attacked us with stones and sticks. We repelled that attack and went into our classrooms. After that day, more revolutionary students started to come back to schools. As we grew stronger in numbers, the fascists had become a minority."

 

DAY OF THE MASSACRE

 

Stating that they were attacked while entering the school and exiting everyday, Sürek explained what happened on March 16: "While we were around the Faculty of Pharmacy, someone shouted 'Bomb!". The bomb exploded like 6 seconds after they shouted. There was a black smoke in the middle of the students. We were in shock. Then came the sounds of the machine guns. We were being raked. Me and a friend stood up and ran into a bookstore, protected ourselves from the gun shots. When the sound of the guns stopped, we put one of our friends who was wounded into the car and take him to Esnaf Hospital. The hospital said they would not operate. So we took him to Cerrahpaşa Medical Hospital. We gathered after we left our injured friends to hospital and occupied the Rectorate building. The school was closed by the administration after what happened. There were protests all over İstanbul, and many other cities. The school started again at the beginning of April. The fascists did not attend school for a while but they continued their attacks. In the middle of April one of our favorite professors Server Tanilli was assasinated. He survived that that attack but he was paralyzed. He lived the rest of his life paralyzed. Then the fascist occupation at the school ended." 

 

THEY CAME WITH POLICE VEHICLES

 

Pointing out that the details of the massacre were only revealed during the trial, Sürek said: "They came with a police bus. The police officer driving the bus was Mustafa Doğan. He fleed abroad after the incident. It was learned that he was in Germany but he was never caught. There were three other people on that bus. One of these people who bombed innocent people was MHP member Zülküf İsot. It was told that police wanted to persue them after they bombed us but the police commissioner Reşat Altay did not allow them. We came by his name once again in Hrant Dink murder."

 

THE PERPETRATORS ARE KNOWN

 

Speaking about the fact that the case was dropped due to prescription, Sürek said: "The perperators are known. And those who haven't been determined yet could be determined with an investigation. This was a political attack and the government today is protecting the perpetrators. They don't want them to be found. But these killers will one day be found, even if they couldn't be caught alive."

 

Underlining that considering all of the massacres against revolutionaries in the history of Turkey, the perpetrators have always been protected, Sürek said: "Everyone knows who's who and what they have done. We see that the counter-insurgency is still alive today. It was established against the revolutionaries. And it killed dozens of revolutionaries, students and union members."

 

FROM BOMBERS TO TRUSTEES

 

Stating that everyone sees clearly what the AKP government has done in the past 18 years, Sürek said: "The young people are against this system where they don't have a future. They are against unemployment and exploitation. And with them standing against these things counter attacks begin. We see that universities are besieged by appointed trustees, which is ridiculous. They don't want to universities to teach science, they need ignorant people. The more ignorant the people, the easier they will rule. They used to bomb the universities in 1978, now they are appointing trustees."

 

UNITED STRUGGLE

 

Underlining that this is a class war, Sürek said: "When laborers, women, oppressed nations and students unite and fight back, these robbers will regressed. Such massacres will continue until they unite. There is no other choice. The only way for us is to unite and fight back."

 

 

MA / Kadir Güney