The weekly TV program of “Şahların Labirenti” on the Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) presented murdered Armenian journalist as the perpetrator of the Maraş Massacre thirty years ago.
In the part about the Maraş Massacre, Ökkeş Şendiller (Kenger), one of the administrators of the Greater Union Party (BBP) and the number one suspect of the massacre, said, “The organizations of Hrant Dink and his friends did all this. After all, there were six, seven uncircumcised corpses. What do these have to do with Alevi and Sunni beliefs?”
Taraf carried this news to the headline as “Hrant Dink executed by the TRT, too”.
Consultants from the BBP
According to Serdar Değirmencioğlu, Hakkı Öznur, BBP’s Vice President, and Zülfü Canpolat, founder of the European branch of the World Order Hearths (Nizam-ı Alem), were the consultants of the program.
Değirmencioğlu criticizes the program for not really touching upon any of the past incidents of March 16, Bahçelievler, Maraş, Çorum.
Kenger was acquitted
According to the official records, 111 people were killed in the Maraş massacre.
Ökkeş Kenger, who got the last name of Şendiller after the acquittal, was the number one suspect of the case filed with the Adana Martial Law Court. He was taken into custody for bombing the Çiçek movie where the anticommunist movie “When the sun will be born” was being played and thus provoking the people on December 19, 1978.
Yusuf İlhan, who was also taken into custody for the incident, had said that the bomb was blasted by Kenger and his job was to throw dynamite to the roof of the movie theater. He said the purpose was to provoke the ultra right wing militants. İlhan also said that Kenger had called the general headquarters in Ankara and reported what had happened.
The number one suspect of the case, Kenger, was acquitted. The 68 people who had played crucial roles in the massacre were never tried. 804 people were tried and 379 people were acquitted. The 314 people who were being tried for sentences from one to fifteen years were released in the process. The death penalties given to the 29 people and the life sentences given to the 7 people were overruled by the Supreme Court of Appeals. Finally, with a change made in the Anti Terror Law, all the perpetrators were released.
According to the report prepared by İrfan Özaydınlı, then minister of interior, Ünal Osmanağaoğlu, Haluk Kırcı, Mustafa Özmen, Bünyamin Adanalı, Ahmet Ercüment Gedikli, whose names would appear years later in the Susurluk conspiracy, were in Maraş at the time of the massacre. (TK/TB)