Victims of Sivas commemorated

Victims of a deliberately set hotel fire in the central Anatolian city of Sivas were commemorated yesterday on the 15th anniversary of the tragic incident. Demonstrators in front of the Madimak Hotel called for the hotel to be turned into a museum and urged a full-scale investigation of the incident. On July 2, 1993, during the Alevi Pir Sultan Abdal Cultural and Literary Festival, many participants who were staying at the hotel in downtown Sivas found themselves besieged by an angry mob who set the venue ablaze. When the fire was finally extinguished, 37 people were found dead, including two hotel workers. Among those lucky enough to have escaped the blaze was prominent writer Aziz Nesin, who is thought to have been the mob's main target.