Far-Right Violence
Madımak Massacre Memorial Center: Confronting a Crime Against Humanity, State Responsibility, and Collective Memory
The Madımak Massacre was a violent attack carried out in 1993 in Sivas, in which 33 people – among them poets, writers, intellectuals, women, and children – were killed when the Madımak Hotel was set on fire.Thousands of people surrounded the hotel, chanting Islamist and fascist slogans and displaying extremist hand gestures, while security forces stood by. The attack was carried out by radical Islamist and fascist groups and is widely recognised as both a crime against humanity and a state crime, due to state responsibility and a longstanding culture of impunity. This lecture introduces the Madımak Massacre Memory Centre as a space of remembrance and confrontation, aiming to preserve collective memory, challenge denial, and contribute to struggles for justice and accountability through physical and digital memorial practices.
Madımak Massacre Memory Centre: https://www.madimak.org
Short biography
Eylem Şen is a documentary filmmaker, creative director, and researcher working at the intersection of cinema, digital memory, and human rights. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering and worked for several years as a database administrator before pursuing film studies. She completed both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Film Design and is currently a PhD candidate in Film Design at Dokuz Eylül University, where she is conducting her doctoral thesis research. Her PhD research focuses on cinema, artificial intelligence, feminist theory, and digital memory, with
particular attention to audiovisual archives and memorial practices. Between 2021 and 2024, she served as the Creative Director, Project Coordinator, and Virtual Museum Director of the Madımak Massacre Memory Centre, working on collective memory, state violence, and digital remembrance through documentary and virtual museum projects.
Political Violence in Sivas and Solingen. How Alevi Self-Organisation and Alliance Politics Were Shaped and Limited
The lecture examines 1993 as a turning point in diaspora politics: Sivas as an anti-Alevi violent event and Solingen as a racist arson attack in Germany. Through this dual framework, it shows how Alevi self-organisation, commemorative practices, and solidarity alliances were strengthened, yet at the same time remained constrained in their ability to articulate themselves by homogenising ‘Turkish community’ narratives and power dynamics within the diaspora. Finally, it explores the implications for contemporary anti-racism work, political education, and solidarity-based coalition building that does not erase difference.
Biographical Notes
Ceren Türkmen is a political sociologist working on racism, right-wing violence, and transnational fault lines in migration society and migration policy, with a focus on the perspectives of affected communities between state politics and self-organisation. In her lectures and publications, she combines analysis of ideology and organisation
with questions of self-organisation, memory politics, and institutional blind spots in Germany.
Admission
Admission only after prior registration and subject to organiser approval!
The organisers reserve the right to restrict participation to registered individuals. Persons who are members of far-right extremist parties or organisations, who can be identified as part of the far-right extremist scene, or who have previously made racist, nationalist, antisemitic, or otherwise dehumanising statements are excluded from the event.
Participation is free of charge. Registration is required for each event individually . Please register at least 3 days before the events you are interested in by emailing: projekt-retra@oth-regensburg.de.
After organiser approval, you will receive confirmation email as well as the video conference link shortly before the event.
Content Note
This lecture series addresses topics such as racism, political violence, antisemitism, and far-right extremism. Some content may be distressing.
