Background
Hamit Fendoğlu, popularly known as "Hamido", was the independent mayor of Malatya. He had taken office after the local elections at the end of 1977 and was only in his fourth month in the post. In spring 1978 Turkey was at a peak of political and sectarian tension, as events in Kahramanmaraş and its surroundings showed, and Malatya was also deeply polarised.
What happened
On the evening of 17 April 1978, at around 19:30, a parcel bomb delivered to Fendoğlu's home exploded. The mayor, his daughter-in-law and two of his grandchildren were killed. The parcel had been posted in Ankara days earlier; press reports say similar packages were sent to other places on the same day, and one of them caused the death of a postal worker elsewhere. The sender's name on the parcel was false.
The mayor's death provoked great anger in the city. From the following day, crowds took to the streets and damaged shops and associations, and the unrest lasted three days. A curfew was imposed in Malatya from 18–19 April and troops brought in from outside took control of the city. The number of damaged workplaces varies by source, with figures of 546, 473 and nearly 700 cited. Other people also died in the unrest, and sources give differing death tolls.
Investigation and why it remains unsolved
The person or people who made and sent the bomb were never identified. Different claims about how the device was made circulated in the press of the time, but none was confirmed in court, and no one has been convicted for the killing. The file is recorded as unsolved. Fendoğlu's family and the people of Malatya have called for the case to be clarified for years.
Legacy
Every year on the anniversary of his death, Fendoğlu is commemorated by the Malatya governorate and local institutions. The event is regarded as one of the most striking examples of the political violence of 1978, because a single attack plunged a whole city into days of turmoil. That those behind the killing remain unknown is still an unanswered question for the families of the dead and for the people of the city.