In Turkey's recent history, some massacres are not only “unknown perpetrators”; they are also symbols of dark structures within the state, political calculations and impunity. The March 16, 1978 Beyazıt Massacre is exactly such an event. On that day, seven university students lost their lives as a result of a bomb explosion and subsequent shooting at Istanbul University's Beyazıt Campus: Abdullah Şimşek, Baki Ekiz, Cemil Sönmez, Hamit Akıl, Hatice Özen, Murat Kurt and Turan Ören.
These young people were not only university students. They were also part of the democratic, egalitarian and libertarian youth movement that rose in the 1970s. The leftist thought organized in universities was raising the voice of labor and the people. This is precisely why they were targeted.
The Beyazıt Massacre was no ordinary “campus fight”. This attack cannot be understood without evaluating it as a part of the counter-guerrilla organization and the dark networks within the state, which were becoming increasingly evident in Turkey at the time. Because the planning of the attack, the method used and what happened afterwards showed that there was a much deeper structure behind the incident, not just a few militants.
The attack was organized. The time when the students would leave the faculty was known. The bomb was thrown in the middle of the crowd and automatic weapons were fired immediately afterwards. But the real darkness began after the massacre. Years of lawsuits, lost files, defendants fleeing abroad and inconclusive investigations have revealed a common picture in Turkey: Impunity.
This is a strong indication that the atmosphere of political violence Turkey was plunged into in the 1970s was no coincidence. Because in the same period, similar dark attacks took place in Maraş, Çorum, Malatya and many other places. Society was polarized, the streets were drenched in blood and the country was being dragged step by step towards a military coup.
The Beyazit Massacre is one of the most striking examples of this process in universities. The forces that wanted to suppress the organized, political and oppositional voice of the youth were aiming to create a climate of fear. But history has shown us this: Fear does not always create silence. Sometimes it creates a stronger memory and a more determined struggle.
Every carnation left at Beyazıt Square today is not only to commemorate the seven young people. It is also an objection against the cover-up of dark structures, deep state relations and political violence in this country.
The fact that the Beyazıt Massacre has not been fully investigated despite the decades that have passed reminds us of one of the biggest obstacles to democracy in Turkey: The unreckoned past.
Justice is established not only in courtrooms but also in social memory. If a society does not confront its own dark pages, those pages will be rewritten again and again.
That is why commemorating March 16 is not only a day of mourning. It is also a call for confrontation.
Because the seven young people killed in Beyazit still ask us the same question:
Are we really ready to look at the dark history of this country?