Alevi protesters DHKP/C Marxist–Leninist Communist Party Government of Turkey General Directorate of Security Gendarmerie General Command Turkish Armed Forces (as of 14 March) İzzettin DoğanÖzlem TunçHasan Ocak Hayri KozakçıoğluGovernor of Istanbul Mehmet AğarChief of the General Directorate of Security Necdet MenzirIstanbul Chief of Police Nahit MenteşeMinister of the Interior Col. Veli KüçükGendarmerie General Command Recep Tayyip ErdoğanMayor of Istanbul The 1995 Gazi Quarter riots (Turkish: Gazi Mahallesi olayları) or 1995 Gazi Massacre (Turkish: Gazi Katliamı) were events that occurred in March 1995 at the Gazi Quarter, a working-class neighborhood in the then Gaziosmanpaşa district, today Sultangazi district, of Istanbul, Turkey, where mostly Alevis live.

The riots began after drive-by shootings on several cafés at the same time, and spread over other places in Istanbul and also in Ankara in the next days.

[2] In the evening hours of March 12, 1995, three cafés and a cake shop were attacked at the same time with automatic rifles, fired by anonymous people from a passing taxicab.

As a result of the attack, Dede Halil Kaya, a 61-year-old Alevi religious leader, was killed and 25 people were injured, five of them severely.

Right after the attack, a great number of Alevi residents of the Gazi Quarter gathered in front of the cemevi, and marched to the neighborhood's police station.

One of the protesters, Mehmet Gündüz, was killed and a good many were injured as the police fired into the air to disperse the crowd.

On the same day, 36 people were injured during the protests that took place at Kızılay, Ankara in reaction to the events at the Gazi Quarter.

[4] In an interview published in the newspaper Özgür Gündem on March 12, 2008, Özlem Tunç revealed her experience of police misconduct during the event.

[4] Tunç's body was picked up by the gendarmerie, and delivered to the police station, where she was thrown onto a pile of dead and injured people.

For security reasons, the place of trial was transferred from Eyüp in Istanbul to a court in the 1,100 km (680 mi) far away city of Trabzon on the northeastern Black Sea.

Adem Albayrak, seen in a footage shooting with an automatic rifle, was charged to 96 years in prison for murder of four persons.

Mehmet Gündoğan, who was recorded while shooting on to the masses, was initially sentenced to 48 years for killing two civilians.

The Court in Strasbourg charged on July 27, 2005 the Republic of Turkey with the payment of compensation in amount of €30,000 to each family of twelve victims in the Gazi Quarter and of five deads in the Ümraniye district, totaling to €510,000.

[5][6] Gültan Kışanak, deputy of Diyarbakır from Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and her 19 parliament member colleagues moved a motion on March 12, 2008, on the 13th anniversary of the 1995 Gazi Quarter riots, for the investigation of the events by the Turkish Grand National Assembly.

He received false identity documents from Öztürk and the code name "Küçük Hacı" (literally: Little Pilgrim) before he moved to Istanbul for action.