Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled Thursday that the state failed to pursue justice in the case of a 1993 arson attack by a mob that killed 35 people inside a hotel during a festival honoring an Alevi poet.
The unanimous ruling found a violation of the state’s duty to investigate the deaths and came 12 years after victims’ relatives asked the court to review the case.
The court ordered compensation for the victims’ relatives. Its written reasoning and the amounts had not been released at the time of publication.
The ruling concerned the procedural protection of the right to life, which requires the state to investigate deaths effectively and hold those responsible to account.
Relatives filed the individual application in 2014, arguing that the proceedings had not been conducted effectively and that the arson should be treated as a crime against humanity, which would prevent the use of a statute of limitations.
The court postponed its examination in 2021 and 2023. A chamber referred the application to the court’s General Assembly in January 2024, and the assembly sought another report on the statute of limitations the following month.
Zeynep Altıok, Eren Aysan and Mazlum Çimen, children of three people killed in the massacre, applied to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in June, arguing that the 12-year wait had made Turkey’s domestic remedy ineffective. Thursday’s ruling came about one month after that application.
On July 2, 1993, a mob surrounded the Madımak Hotel in the central province of Sivas and set it on fire while writers, poets, musicians and other guests attended a festival honoring the 16th-century Alevi poet Pir Sultan Abdal. The fire killed 35 people inside the hotel, including 33 festival participants and two hotel workers. Two people from the crowd also died.
The attack became a symbol of discrimination and violence faced by Alevis, Turkey’s largest religious minority. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has described the massacre as part of the persecution experienced by the community.
Turkish courts convicted scores of defendants, and death sentences imposed on 33 people were later converted to aggravated life terms after Turkey abolished capital punishment. Proceedings involving fugitives continued for years, but courts dropped cases on statute of limitations grounds, reinforcing criticism that the judicial process had produced impunity.