MİT report suggests Dörtyol incidents hoped to provoke 2nd Madımak massacre

The Madımak incident took place on July 2, 1993, in Sivas, where 35 people who traveled to the city to attend the Pir Sultan Abdal Festival died when the Madımak Hotel was set on fire following provocations. Among those killed were writers, poets and folk music singers. Fifty-one people were wounded. Two of the assailants died. According to the MİT report, when protestors set ablaze the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) building in Dörtyol, police in the town immediately called firefighters.

The firefighters are employed by the municipality currently run by the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Before long, the firefighters arrived at the scene of the fire but left without putting it out. They made the victory sign with their hands as they left. The report suggests that the refusal of the firefighters to put the fire out was a strong indicator of the desire to witness a second Madımak crisis.

Dörtyol was the center of high tension last week, beginning on Monday when four police officers were killed in a terrorist attack on a police cruiser, after which a nationalist group set the district’s pro-Kurdish BDP office ablaze, chanting slogans against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Tension ran high in the city throughout last week.

The MİT report also said the police had informed the Dörtyol Prosecutor’s Office about the attitude of the firefighters. In response, the office said: “You do not take action against BDP supporters who chant slogans [in favor of the terrorist PKK], so there is no need to take action against the firefighters, either.”

The prosecutor’s office later asked the Dörtyol Police Department to release 30 nationalists who were detained after rising tension in the town. The request, according to the MİT report, was aimed at helping to stir up further chaos in the town.

Tension continued to rise in Dörtyol after claims emerged that Leyla Zana, a former Kurdish politician, was set to visit the town with a large group of BDP members. The claims alarmed nationalist residents of the town, who convened in a large square to prevent the delegation from entering Dörtyol. The delegation arrived in Hatay, but without Zana, to examine the situation in the city, but security forces did not allow it to enter Dörtyol.

The MİT report also pointed to the influence of the MHP provincial chairman in Hatay, Şefik Çirkin, and Lütfi Kaşıkçı, the head of the MHP’s Ülkü Ocakları -- the youth branch of the party -- on the nationalist group protesting in the town. In addition, MHP Hatay deputy Süleyman Çirkin worked to incite further tension in the city, taking part in live broadcasts during which he stated that the reaction of Hatay residents in the face of PKK violence was “ordinary.”

According to Sinan Oğan, president of the International Relations and Strategic Analysis Center (TÜRKSAM), Parliament should set up a commission to investigate the Dörtyol incidents. Otherwise, it is inevitable that Turkey will witness another major provocation in the city.

“When the PKK first emerged, they said it was the work of a handful of street bullies. The inaction contributed to the rapid growth of the terrorist organization. A parliamentary commission should be set up to investigate the Dörtyol incidents,” he said. Oğan also said it was pure luck that there were no casualties in the violent incidents in Hatay. “Had blood been shed from the two sides [Turks and Kurds], we would have entered a dangerous process. We should not ignore the gravity of the incidents but launch a detailed probe [immediately],” he added.

In the meantime, Interior Minister Beşir Atalay on Sunday raised the prospect of provocation in Dörtyol in the wake of the PKK attack there, saying that things are not as simple as they seem in Hatay. “All the complexity of the incident is being analyzed by special intelligence teams. What they [the provocateurs] want is to sabotage a peaceful atmosphere for a public referendum [on the constitutional amendment package],” the minister noted.

Turkey is set to vote in a referendum on a government-backed package to amend the Constitution on Sept. 12. Tension has gradually been rising since the package was completed. Security teams believe opponents of the package are pinning their hopes on more violence in the country to urge people to vote against the constitutional amendments.

The National Police Department warned all police departments across Turkey against “ethnic provocation” in a confidential notice on Monday. The note cautions that provocateurs are hoping to foment tension among members of different ethnic groups.

According to the notice, the provocateurs are eyeing residents of cities home to multiple ethnic groups for further tension. They will not miss the opportunity to provoke residents, with the hope of this escalating into violent clashes between the groups. The notice also warns that the provocateurs are mainly people who were convicted of various crimes in the past.

Funeral ceremonies for slain soldiers and conferences and meetings held in the aftermath of terrorist attacks are occasions not to be missed by the provocateurs, according to the notice. The provocateurs usually exploit the nationalist feelings of the participants at such events to deepen the tension between Turkey’s Turks and Kurds.

The note also cautioned that the BDP offices and party members as well as members of the MHP, the Grand Unity Party (BBP), the Ülkü Ocakları and the Alperen Ocakları -- the youth branch of the BBP -- may soon be targeted in acts of provocation. The notice asked police departments to step up security measures in their cities.