Austria: Commemoration of the December Massacres committed by the Turkish State
Featured image: Panel in Austria on the December massacres. Source: Yeni Demokrasi
In Austria three massacres committed by the Turkish State in December were commemorated. On the 24th of December 1978 the Turkish state committed the Maraş massacre, on the 19th of December 2000 it committed prison massacres, and on the 28th of December 2011 it committed the Roboski massacre.
Yeni Demokrasi reports on panels being held in three Austrian cities. The panels were held in Innsbruck on the 15th of December, in Linz on the 16th of December and in Neunkirchen on the 17th of December.
After a moment of silence for those who lost their lives in the massacres, a video was shown, followed by several speeches. In the speech made on behalf of AGEB the following was said:
“The Maraş Massacre was the path to the ’80 Coup. The state, which was preparing to block the class struggle that developed especially towards the mid-1970s, with a military coup, began to look for ‘appropriate’ opportunities for this. The 24 December 1978 Maraş Massacre prepared the way for the 12 September 1980 military fascist coup. Another massacre that will never be forgotten from our memories took place in prisons on December 19. On December 19, 2000, 28 revolutionaries were murdered in an operation carried out in 20 prisons. The operation, in which hundreds of revolutionaries were injured with chemical and firearms, went down in history as the country’s largest prison massacre.”
The Roboski Massacre where 33 Kurdish villagers were bombed and murdered by State forces was also emphasized.
The speech concluded with stating the necessity to organize and struggle to prevent these massacres from occurring, and it was emphasized that the real problem would only be solved by eliminating the old Turkish State.
