Background
In the late 1970s political violence in Turkey was escalating and universities were frequent targets. At Istanbul University, students marched to campus in organised groups to attend classes and take part in boycotts.
The Beyazıt Massacre of 16 March 1978 is remembered as one of the gravest incidents of that period.
What happened
On 16 March 1978, as the front of the marching students reached the Faculty of Pharmacy in Beyazıt, a bomb was thrown into the middle of the group, followed by gunfire. Five students died at the scene and two more in hospital; more than forty people were wounded.
Those killed were Hatice Özen, Cemil Sönmez, Baki Ekiz, Turan Ören, Abdullah Şimşek, Hamit Akıl and Murat Kurt. Witnesses named Zülküf İsot as the person who threw the bomb, but he was later killed by a friend and no one was convicted on that basis.
Investigation and legal process
In the first case, non-prosecution decisions were issued for 17 people, while other defendants were tried in a martial law court with the death penalty sought. Sources name the one convicted person differently; that verdict was also overturned by the Military Court of Cassation, resulting in acquittal in 1982.
A second case was opened in 1995 against new defendants identified by lawyers. The Istanbul 6th Heavy Penal Court dropped it on 20 October 2008 under the statute of limitations, and the Court of Cassation upheld that decision in March 2010. Lawyers and human rights groups argued that the attack was organised crime and a crime against humanity, so limitation should not apply.
Where it stands today
A commemoration is held every year on 16 March in Beyazıt. No one has been held responsible before a court, and the file was formally closed in 2010. The seven students killed continue to be remembered among the emblematic names in Turkey's debates over impunity.