CHP deputy questions claims of hit lists by ISIL jihadist

Emine Kart - ANKARA

A leading member of the main opposition party has submitted a parliamentary question over claims that Yunus Durmaz, an alleged “emir” of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) who blew himself up during a police raid in Gaziantep in May, had made numerous hit lists.

In the parliamentary question presented to the office of Parliament Speaker İsmail Kahraman on July 6, Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) Istanbul deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu, who is also a member of the CHP Party Assembly, recalled media reports over claims that Durmaz had put dozens of Alevi villages, cemevis and associations on a hit list, while he had also listed the addresses of organizations such as the Atatürkist Thought Association (ADD) and the Association for Supporting Contemporary Life (ÇYDD).

“In response to allegations that ISIL made a hit list on Alevis, will a measure be immediately taken by the AKP [the Justice and Development Party] government so that ISIL will not be able to launch any operation against Alevi citizens living in the mentioned regions or commit a massacre?” Tanrıkulu asked in his motion, which was addressed to Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım.

In late May, three experts tasked with assessing plans to build a container city for around 27,000 Syrian refugees near predominantly Alevi-populated villages in the southern province of Kahramanmaraş all advised against the construction of the camp. 

The report was prepared as part of a trial opened to annul a decision by the Kahramanmaraş Governor’s Office to assign a meadow, currently part of the village of Sivricehöyük in Kahramanmaraş’s Dulkadiroğlu district, for the construction of a refugee camp. 

The construction of the camp has drawn widespread resistance from locals, who are fearful of a rekindling of ethno-religious tensions with the potential arrival of extremists to a historically sensitive region that is home to 24 predominantly Alevi villages. 

“Alevis and Sunnis have learned to leave together peacefully in Maraş. We all must avoid actions that might threaten this peace,” Alevi Cultural Association’s provincial head İbrahim İnçoğlu told reporters during the early phases of protests in April. 

“We are not against refugees. We are just afraid that ISIL and al-Nusra militants will infiltrate into camps and harm the Alevis in this region,” İnçoğlu added.

Through 1978 and 1980, ahead of the Sept. 12, 1980 military coup d’état, Alevis were subjected to mass killings not only in Kahramanmaraş, then called Maraş, but also in Sivas and Çorum by ultra-nationalist groups.