Four days of riots in Istanbul's Gazi Quarter left 23 dead after drive-by shootings on Alevi cafés ignited widespread civil unrest.
Key Facts
- Deaths
- 23 people
- Injured
- More than 1,400 rioters and police
- Duration
- 4 days
- Start date
- March 1995
- Affected cities
- Istanbul and Ankara
- Neighborhood affected
- Gazi Quarter, Gaziosmanpaşa, Istanbul
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
The unrest was triggered by simultaneous drive-by shootings on several cafés in the Gazi Quarter, a working-class district of Istanbul predominantly inhabited by Alevis. The targeted attacks on the community fueled anger and suspicion, rapidly escalating tensions in the neighborhood.
Beginning on 12 March 1995, riots broke out in the Gazi Quarter and spread over multiple areas of Istanbul and to Ankara over four days. Clashes between rioters and police resulted in 23 people killed and more than 1,400 individuals injured during the sustained unrest.
The riots drew national and international attention to the situation of the Alevi minority in Turkey and raised serious questions about state security failures in protecting the community. The events, also referred to as the Gazi Massacre, became a defining grievance in Turkish Alevi collective memory and political discourse.
Political Outcome
23 people were killed and over 1,400 injured during four days of riots; the events heightened tensions around the status of Turkey's Alevi minority.