300 face execution in mass riot trial

Press, 5 June 1979, Page 9

300 face execution in mass riot trial

NZPA-Reuter Ankara More than 800 Turks, in- ! eluding shopkeepers, teach- i ers, and housewives, have i gone on trial before a mili-j . tary tribunal in Adana on, charges connected with bloody sectarian riots last! December in Kahramanmaras| Jin which more than 1001 .! people died. ‘: Some 330 of the defendants, including 10 women, > could be hanged if convicted. - The mass trial, in an indoor , > sports arena in the southern < ’ town near the Mediterranean! • coast, will be the biggest in! [ Turkey since the dramatic: H trials of members of the J ;Democrat Party Government: of Adnan Menderes after a I ' 1960 military coup d'etat. ' The three-day riots in i Kahramanmaras, 150 km

north-east of Adana, were i mainly between Muslims of j (the Sunni and Alevi Shute l ifaiths, although they were; largely politically-motivated, i i Most Alevis tend towards | the Left while the Sunnis in j i Kahramanmaras generally: support Turkey’s Right-wing j parties. The fighting broke out after Rightist Sunnis broke; up a funeral cortege carrying the bodies of two murdered 1 Left-wing teachers last Dec- ; ember 22. Three days of sec-1 jtarian riots followed, with Sunnis rampaging through !Alevi districts. Most of the victims, including many women and children, were Alevis. The violence led the Social ; Democratic Prime Minister ;(Mr Bulent Ecevit) to impose : martial law in 13 key provinces last December 26. As

political assassinations in (Turkey, which have killed i around 1500 people since the ■start of 1978. continued. Mr iEcevit extended martial law (to a further six provinces ■ last April. Kahramanmaras and Adana are in seperate provinces but are both under one martiallaw commander. Holding the i mass trials in Adana was clearly aimed at avoiding rekindling hostilities in the smaller town of Kahratnanimaras. The 803 defendants fare combinations of a total of 17 (charges in a 240-page indictiment worked out by six military prosecutors. ■ The most serious charge, punishable by death, is “armed insurrection and causing massacre.” Ten women are among 330 facing this charge.