Devrimci Yol - Resistance Committees in Practice

Resistance Committees in Practice

The resistance committees (organized in factories or quarters) were put to the test during the incidents in Çorum in July 1980. Just like the conflict in Kahramanmaraş in December 1978 the clashes in Çorum seemed to emerge from religious tensions between the dominant Sunnites and the minority of Alevites, but at the same time were a battle between right and left wing groups for domination in the town. Talking about fascist aggression the committees in the quarters erected barricades trying to avoid further losses.

Although a curfew was announced and the military intervened some 50 people were killed. While the conflict in Çorum was still continuing Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel intervened by saying Çorum'u bırak, Fatsa'ya bak (Leave Çorum and look at Fatsa). He was referring to the district town at the Black Sea of (at the time some 20,000 inhabitants) who in 1979 had elected Fikri Sönmez, known as terzi Fikri ("Tailor Fikri") as mayor with 62% of the votes. The words of Demirel resulted in the so called "point operation" (nokta operasyonu), a military operation that destroyed the project of self-administration in Fatsa (in German de:Wikipedia:Selbstverwaltung in Fatsa). More than 1,000 people were detained. The military operation in Fatsa was often termed rehearsal for the coup.