We are on the 10th anniversary of the Ankara Train Station Massacre on October 10th. On October 10, 2015, another massacre was being committed by the fascist Turkish state, this time by the AKP government. The tens of thousands who flocked to Ankara demanded peace, but the fascist AKP government responded with a declaration of war.
Despite the passing of a decade, those truly responsible for the massacre, in which 104 people were killed and hundreds more were injured, continue to be protected. Just as with hundreds of other massacres for which the state is responsible. The social atmosphere that changed with the Gezi Uprising (June) was followed by the October 6th-8th Uprisings that continued in 2014 and 2015, the resistance for self-governance, and the rising struggles of workers and laborers, women and youth—in short, the oppressed. Social opposition was rapidly developing.
In precisely this atmosphere, the AKP government suffered a complete defeat in the June 7, 2015 elections. To reverse this defeat, maintain power, and stem the tide of a rising mass movement, it implemented the concept of all-out war. Just before June 7, the bloody attack on the HDP’s Amed rally was followed by the Suruç Massacre. And on October 10, at a peace rally in Ankara attended by thousands, the fascist government carried out a massacre by gangs it had supported.
With these massacres, the AKP government aimed to eliminate the revolutionary dynamics and the Kurdish people’s gains and struggle, to suppress all social opposition, and to stifle the rising struggle of the masses. With the concept of all-out war, state-sponsored massacres continued after October 10; a state-sanctioned state terror was unleashed, particularly in Kurdistan.
Over the last decade, the working and oppressed peoples of our region were subjected to a stranglehold of complete oppression. Even the slightest objection was attacked by the government; masses seeking to exercise their democratic rights were confronted by state law enforcement. Prisons were filled with political prisoners; the working class and laborers were condemned to misery, hunger, and poverty. Violence and massacres against women were paved the way for and made commonplace by the government itself. State oppression of the Kurdish people surpassed the 1990s; invasions were launched against Rojava and Bashur Kurdistan, and attempts were made to liquidate the Kurdish people’s gained positions.
Young people were driven to despair in a vortex of hopelessness; nature was opened to the unrestrained plunder of monopoly capital. The fascist government, driven by its own survival and the interests of capital, constructed a completely arbitrary and unregulated regime. The fascist government managed to remain in power in the climate of fear it created with its concept of all-out war; but at the same time, the anger of the oppressed against this government grew and grew.
The struggle and resistance never ceased. Workers, Kurds, women, youth, and oppressed faiths did not bow down, did not surrender, and did not cower. At this stage, the streets and squares were once again animated by the struggle of the masses against the fascist government. Despite all the ongoing oppression, it became clear that the struggle of the oppressed continued to make history.
Just as massacres, oppression, violence, and arrests failed to prevent the collapse of the fortresses the rulers deemed indestructible by the revolutionary uprising of the masses yesterday, they will not be able to prevent them today. Those fortresses will be brought down by the united struggle of the oppressed.
Let us expand the united struggle for revolution and elevate the struggle for socialism for a world free of oppression, exploitation, and massacres.
The people, not the bourgeois legal system of the current order, will judge all the massacres committed by the fascist state and government. No crime committed against the people will go unpunished.
As we respectfully commemorate those immortalized in the massacre, we reiterate our promise that we will achieve their goals. Sooner or later, but without fail, we will hold those responsible for the October 10th Massacre accountable.
Don’t Forget October 10th, Don’t Let It Be Forgotten!
Raise the united revolutionary struggle to hold fascism accountable!
HBDH Executive Committee
October 10, 2025