Opposition's presidential candidate İhsanoğlu visits Madımak Hotel

SİVAS

Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu and his wife, Füsun İhsanoğlu (R), leave flowers at the Madımak Hotel in memory of 35 people killed there in an arson attack in 1993.

Presidential hopeful Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu left flowers in front of the Madımak Hotel in the Central Anatolian province of Sivas in memory of 35 people, mostly Alevi intellectuals, who were massacred in an arson attack 21 years ago.

İhsanoğlu, the joint candidate of several opposition parties, particularly the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), gave messages of unity and peace during his visit to Sivas as part of his presidential campaign.

Stating that the supporters of the CHP, MHP and the Great Union Party (BBP), came together in front of the Madımak Hotel, İhsanoğlu said: “Look at this scene. Turkey has decided to become unified.”

İhsanoğlu and his wife, Füsun İhsanoğlu, left flowers in front of the hotel. When the reporters recalled a recent report released by the State Audit Board (DDK) over the failures that led to the killing of 35 people at the hotel, İhsanoğlu said “everyone was guilty in the incident, especially the rulers.”

“I have talked to the deputies who came here in those days. Parliament established a delegation. It is impossible to disagree with the DDK’s statements. But now what’s necessary needs to be done. I hope that we will do it after the elections,” he said.

The DDK report into the 1993 Sivas Massacre declared that the Turkish state was responsible for the arson attack on the Madımak Hotel.