Process of 49
The trial of 49 ( Turkish 49'lar Olayı or 49'lar Davası ) took place in Turkey in 1959 and was initially carried out against 51 men who had been charged with Kurdish propaganda and separatism . Many of these men later held important positions within Kurdish parties and organizations. The process indirectly led to the Kurdish problem flaring up again in Turkey after 1938 (the Dersim uprising ).
prehistory
On June 14, 1959, fighting broke out in the city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, in which some Turkmen were murdered. The Iraqi army , the Iraqi Communist Party and Kurdish fighters led by Mustafa Barzani were involved in the fighting . In retaliation, some Turkish politicians demanded the deportation or punishment of the Kurds in Turkey . The then Turkish President Celâl Bayar is said to have said that one thousand Kurds should be hung on Taksim Square in Istanbul as a deterrent . Asım Eren MP from Niğde called for the killing of as many Kurds as the number of Turkmen who died in Kirkuk. To protest against this, 102 Kurdish students wrote a letter that they sent to various government agencies and embassies in foreign countries. When Musa Anter , who had already been to court several times, published a poem in Kurdish with Qimil in the magazine Ileri Yurt from Diyarbakır in August 1959 and there was a great protest in the Istanbul press, the government had the Turkish secret service a catalog of measures create. After that 1,000–2500 Kurds were supposed to be deported. It was decided to react more mildly to the events in Iraq and the Kurdish propaganda in the country and instead wanted to bring several Kurdish activists to justice.
process
In December 1959, Ankara lawyers issued arrest warrants for 50 people. The arrests began on December 17, 1959. Photos of the Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani and propaganda material of the Kurdish Independence Party (tr: Kürt İstiklal Partisi) are said to have been found in several searches . 40 prisoners were detained in the Istanbul military prison. Ten other defendants were released on security due to lack of space. The interrogations began two months later and ended in mid-1960.
Law student Mehmet Emin Batu died of gastric bleeding because of the poor prison conditions. Although there were two more defendants, the case came to be known nationwide as the Trial of 49 . While the defendants were awaiting trial, the military under Cemal Gürsel launched a coup on May 27, 1960. Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and many others were convicted in the Yassıada trials . A general amnesty was issued on October 26, 1960, but the defendants in the trial of 49 were excluded. After 14 months in prison, the trial began on January 3, 1961.
The defendants were divided into three groups, with insufficient evidence for the first two groups to convict them. The third group, made up of Şevket Turan, Naci Kutlay, Ali Karahan, Koço Elbistan, Yavuz Çamlıbel, Mehmet Ali Dinler, Yusuf Kaçar, Ziya Şerefhanoğlu, Medet Serhat, Hasan Akkuş, Örfi, Akkoyunlu, Selim Kılıçahoğ, SalioŞahoğin El Şluğin Kırmızıtoprak, Yaşar Kaya, Faik Savas, Haydar Aksu, Ziya Acar, Fadil Budak, Halil Demirel, Necati Siyahkan, A. Efem Dolak, Musa Anter, Canip Yıldırım and Mehmet Bilgin was, was of separatism under Article 125 TPC aF ( high treason and separatism ) charged. All of them were released on April 30, 1964 for lack of evidence. But the Military Court of Cassation overturned this judgment. In 1965, the defendants were charged under Articles 141 and 142 tStGB old version ( propagation and organization of forbidden associations ) and sentenced to 16 months in prison or 5 months and 10 days in exile. But this judgment was also overturned. A new trial was no longer started due to the statute of limitations and so all of the accused were finally released in 1965.
Some of the accused joined parties or associations that pursued Kurdish politics. Such organizations were the Türkiye İşçi Partisi and the Devrimci Doğu Kültür Ocakları (DDKO). Other people founded their own parties, for example Kemal Burkay later founded the Socialist Party of Kurdistan and Şerafettin Elçi the Democratic Mass Party . Some of the accused later entered the Turkish parliament as members of the parliament. Among them were Nurettin Yılmaz, Ali Karahan and Fevzi Kartal.
List of defendants
The following list of accused comes from the books Kürtçülük 1924–1999 by Bilal N. Şimşir p. 516 and Kürt Sorununu from Altan Tan p. 333. It is a summary of several sources and comprises 60 accused persons. Due to the different sources, there are several versions of some names.
Surname | activity | Surname | activity | Surname | activity |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ziya Acar | Law student | Turgut Akın | Law student | Durdu Akkoyunlu | Merchant |
Örfi Akkoyunlu | Hasan Akkuş | Merchant | Haydar Aksu | Lawyer | |
Musa Anter | author | Fevzi Avşar | doctor | Kudsi Aytaç | |
Nazmi Balkaç | Agricultural student | Samet Balkaç | Medical student | Cezmi Balkaş | |
İsmet Balkaş | Emin Batu | Law student | Ferit Bilen | Dealer | |
Sait bing oil | Business student | Fadıl Budak | Law student | Kemal Burkay | |
Esat Cemiloğlu | engineer | Yavuz Çamlıbel | officer | Mehmet Çiğdem | decorator |
Hüseyin Çok | Medical student | Halil Demirel | officer | Feyzullah Demirtaş | Law student |
Mehmet Ali Dinler | Law student | Mustafa Nuri Direkçigil | doctor | Abdurahman Efem Dolak | journalist |
Koca Elbistan / Koçu Elbistan | doctor | Sıtkı Elbistan | Law student | Sait Elçi | Accountant |
Şerafettin Elçi | Sihap Erdel | Mehmet Eydemir / Mehmet Aydemir | Medical student | ||
Selim Foğlu | Fetullah Kakioğlu | Ökkeş Karadağ | farmer | ||
Ali Karahan / Ali Kerman | Lawyer | Fevzi Kartal | Lawyer | Yasar Kaya | Business student |
Selim Kılıçoğlu | Teacher | Sait Kırmızıtoprak | doctor | Yusuf Koçar | officer |
Emin Kotan / Emil Kotan | electrician | Naci Kutlay | doctor | Hüseyin Oğuz Üçok | |
Necdet Özankara | Law student | Mehmet Özer | Mustafa Ramanlı | Medical student | |
Faik Savaş | Medical student | Şehabettin Septioğlu | Necati Siyakan | Medical student | |
Muhsin Şamata / Muhsin Şavata | electrician | Ziya Şerefhanoğlu | Medet Serhat | ||
Şevket Turan / Şevket Turanlı | Hasan Ulus | Building contractor | Medset Yas | Law student | |
Cahit Yıldırım / Canip Yıldırım | Lawyer | Nurettin Yılmaz | Law student | Halis Yokuş |
Individual evidence
- ↑ Turkish quote: Kürtlerden bin tanesini Taksim Meydanı'nda sallandıralım ki diğerlerine ibret-i âlem olsun. (Source: Ayşe Hür in 'Kımıl' olayından 49'lar Davası'na)
swell
- Bilal N. Şimşir (2009): Kürtçülük 1924-1999 , ISBN 9789752202733 .
- Altan Tan: Kürt Sorununu , Timaş Yayınları
- Taraf (July 13, 2008): 'Kımıl' olayından 49'lar Davası'na ( Memento of December 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
literature
- Yavuz Çamlıbel: 49'lar Davası , Algı Yayıncılık, Ankara 2007, ISBN 9944680257