Parliamentary commission to hear from judge of critical cases

The sub-commission, which is investigating the Feb. 28, 1997 military coup, has decided to hear Karadeniz, who was then a judge at the now-defunct Ankara 1st State Security Court (DGM), after Karadeniz earlier said there was pressure on the judges of the court from the Supreme Court of Appeals' Criminal Council regarding their ruling on the Sivas hotel fire case and that the council demanded heavier punishments be given to the suspects.

“We could no longer resist the demand of the Supreme Court of Appeals' Criminal Council for more punishments,” Karadeniz had said.

On July 2, 1993, 33 people attending a conference on Alevi poet Pir Sultan Abdal died at the Madımak Hotel in Sivas after the building was set afire by an angry mob protesting the attendance of writer Aziz Nesin, a self-proclaimed atheist, at the festival. Thirty-three artists and intellectuals, along with two hotel workers and two members of the protesting mob, lost their lives in the incident, which is popularly known as the “Sivas Massacre.”

There is still much controversy around the identity of the real masterminds of the Sivas massacre, and following Karadeniz's testimony, this incident will also have come to Parliament's agenda.

Karadeniz is also hearing or has heard other critical cases such as those of former Human Rights Association (İHD) President Akın Birdal's assassination; the Hizbullah case; the assassinations of journalist Uğur Mumcu, Professor Bahriye Üçok and journalist Ahmet Taner Kışlalı; the 2006 Council of State attack; and the 2008 bomb attack against the secular Cumhuriyet newspaper.