Bloody Sunday (1969)

Bloody Sunday ( _tr. Kanlı Pazar) is the name given to a counter-revolutionary response to a leftist protest that occurred on February 16, 1969, in Istanbul's Taksim Square, Turkey. A coup d'etat in 1960 had allowed a group of Turkish military officers to take control of the country. [Karasapan, Omer. Turkey and US Strategy in the Age of Glasnost. "Middle East Report", No. 160, Turkey in the Age of Glasnost (Sep. - Oct., 1989), p. 6] Under this established government, labor tensions grew and anti-American sentiment rose. Elements of the Turkish left and labour movement were protesting against perceived American Imperialism. [cite journal
last = Amineh
first = Mehdi Parvizi
authorlink =
coauthors = Houweling, Henk
title = Global Energy Security and Its Geopolitical Impediments: The Case of the Caspian Region
journal = Perspectives on Global Development and Technology
volume = 6
issue =
pages = 365-388
publisher =
location =
date = June, 2007
url = http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/pgdt/2007/00000006/F0030001/art00017
doi = 10.1163/156914907X207793
id =
accessdate =April 2008]

Protests increased after the United States Sixth Fleet arrived in Turkey. [cite book
last = Kasaba
first = Resat Ed.
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Turkey in the Modern World
series = The Cambridge History of Turkey
volume = 4
publisher = Cambridge University Press
date = 2008
location =
pages = xvii, 226-266
url = http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521620961
doi =
id =
isbn = ] Unrest peaked on February 16, 1969, when 30,000 people marched on Taksim. The demonstration was broken up by the police, but several thousand continued the march towards Taksim. It was at this point that a counter-revolutionary force attacked a large group of these protesters with knives and sticks. [Karasapan, Omer. Turkey and US Strategy in the Age of Glasnost. "Middle East Report", No. 160, Turkey in the Age of Glasnost (Sep. - Oct., 1989), p. 8] During this confrontation, two protesters, Ali Turgut and Duran Erdogan, were killed. [cite news|title=Istanbul Protests|url=https://turkishdailynews.com.tr/archives.php?id=21969|publisher=Turkish Daily News|date=February 17, 2001|accessdate=2008-04-25] Feroz Ahmad, a leftist Turkish scholar, refers to Bloody Sunday as "an example of organized, fascist violence", [cite book
last = Ahmad
first = Feroz
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = The Turkish Experiment in Democracy: 1940-1975
publisher = Westview Press
date = 1977
location = Boulder, CO, USA
pages = 381
url =
doi =
id =
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] alluding to right wing elements responsible for most of the violence.

Left-right political tensions ran high for most of the 1960s and 1970s. [Başkan, Filiz (January 2006). "Globalization and Nationalism: The Nationalist Action Party of Turkey". Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 12 (1): 83-105.] Similar attacks on labor groups by right wing elements in the government and Turkish politics occurred in 1971 and 1977. The 1977 massacre is referred to as Turkey's "second Bloody Sunday". [Ahmad, Feroz. Military Intervention and the Crisis in Turkey. "MERIP Reports", No. 93, Turkey: The Generals Take Over (Jan., 1981), p. 10,22]

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