The Dersim Genocide 1938

[Alexandros]

Re: The Dersim Genocide 1938




Military documents to shine light on 'Dersim massacre'

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Vercihan Ziflioğlu

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

A new book on the 1938 Dersim Operation aims to challenge the official Republican history on the event with previously unseen photographs, historically important documents and eye-witness accounts. Hasan Saltuk’s 600-page book will be released in May in both English and Turkish

Another taboo of Turkey’s Republican history is about to be broken with the publication of a book by Hasan Saltuk on the 1938 Dersim Operation.

Saltuk, who is the owner of record label Kalan, a researcher and an ethnomusicologist, has spent nine years collecting previously unseen photographs, historically important documents and comments from soldiers who participated in the operation. He plans to present his findings in a new 600-page book to be published in both Turkish and English in May.

He criticized the present state of research in Turkey. “Historians here cannot go beyond the official ideology; they do not do any research. Those who do research and know the truth cannot raise a voice because they are afraid.”

Saltuk, who is from one of the oldest families of Dersim, said that even though he was from a Turkmen tribe on his father’s side, dozens of their relatives were murdered during the operation.

“My grandmother was pregnant with my mother but she saved herself from the firing squad at the last minute,” Saltuk said in an interview with the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. “Dersim residents are still afraid to talk. The elderly still think somebody’s going to come and kill them.”

Was the operation planned?

The official historical sources say the 1938 operation in Dersim, now called Tunceli, was implemented to quash a Kurdish tribal rebellion. Saltuk, however, performed his research in largely international archives, especially English and Armenian ones, collecting documents of historical importance.

“We see in the documents that the Dersim operation was planned; the reports were prepared in 1920. The law related to the operation was passed in 1935 and action was taken in 1937. Seyit Rıza and his friends were hanged on grounds that they were leading a rebellion,” Saltuk said.

Although the rebellion was labeled a Kurdish tribal insurrection, Saltuk said the fundamental reason behind the operation was that the region was home to Tunceli Alevis and that they were merely Armenians who had changed their identities.

“The official sources say Dersim residents were not paying taxes or performing military service and that they were always rebelling. However, we have documents proving the opposite. Atatürk led the Dersim operation himself,” he said.

“Over 13,000 people were killed during the operation and 22,000 were exiled. Orphaned children were subjected to Turkification policies in orphanages,” Saltuk said.

Soldiers regretful

The book would reprint the comments he found on the back of all the photographs he obtained. In many cases, the comments expressed remorse for the events in Dersim. “[Many] felt qualms of conscience for what was experienced. Some expressed their feelings with the words, ‘I have become a murderer.’ Others wrote, ‘I caused the deaths of 250 people,’” Saltuk said.

The project involved following the trails of surviving soldiers who participated in the operation, Saltuk said, adding that he saw many who were unable to adapt to social life. “Many soldiers we [interviewed] demanded their names be made public after their deaths. A few people did not mind having their names in the book; some said, ‘They ordered us to kill and we did,’” he said.

He obtained hundreds of original photos and maps alongside two dossiers of population records from the grandchild – whose name Saltuk withheld – of a high level civil servant from that era. “The invaluable documents and photographs in the dossiers reveal the operation in all its detail. However, it is without doubt that much more striking files are in the archives of the Turkish General Staff.”

‘Taboos will be broken in Turkey’

Touching on the storm of controversy Republican People’s Party, or CHP, deputy leader Onur Öymen has caused with comments on the Dersim Operation, Saltuk said, “Actually, Öymen should be congratulated. He did what the residents of Dersim could not do for years by putting the subject on the public agenda.”

Saltuk said he believes that Turkey has entered an age of great change. “All the taboos of this country will be broken and, in the future, there will not be anything that cannot be spoken about.”

Link

[egeli]

Re: The Dersim Genocide 1938

Mustafa AKYOL


How Turkey massacred the Kurds of Dersim

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Mustafa AKYOL

A great problem facing Turkey is that the country continues to idealize its authoritarian age and avoid facing its misdeeds

After five months on book leave, it is nice to be back in the Daily News.

I hope all has been well for everybody since June. As for Turkey, many new events and debates seem to have unfolded, but the scene is pretty much the same. Once again, one of the taboos of our not-so-democratic Republic is being hotly debated. (This time it is the “Kurdish question.”)

Once again, our incumbent “Islamist” party, despite the reckless machismo of its leader, proves to be more liberal and reformist than its secularist opponents. And, once again, some pundits in Turkey, or Washington, are propagating the line that this “Islamist” government is pushing us into “darkness,” by ending the good old days of the Kemalist quasi-dictatorship.

In fact, understanding the true nature of that Kemalist era is the key to realizing whether Turkey is heading toward “darkness,” or actually moving away from it. And Onur Öymen, the second man of the secularist opposition, the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, just gave us a good opportunity to reflect on that question a little bit.

Dersim? What Dersim?

Öymen’s controversial remarks came last week, when he strongly opposed the reform initiative to broaden Kurdish rights and disarm the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. Criticizing the governments’ peacenik motto, “Let mothers cry no more,” Öymen said that Turkey has fought many lethal enemies, both within and without, and never stopped doing so for such bleeding-heart concerns. “Did mothers not cry in the Dersim uprising,” he asked. “No one stood up and said, ‘Let mothers cry no more’ and ‘let’s stop this struggle.’”

Protests then flared against Öymen, throughout the country, and even from some of the saner members of his party. “Dersim,” they said, “cannot be justified.”

But what was this Dersim thing all about?

Many Turks have no clue about the event because this nasty episode, like several others, is carefully excluded from “official history,” the only history they know. Even some Western authorities, such as Bernard Lewis and Stanford J. Shaw, have not written a single word about it in their books on modern Turkish history. Yet the violent suppression of the Dersim Revolt of 1937-38 is too tragic to be forgotten, let alone be cheered for.

Here is the briefest story. Dersim, a town in eastern Anatolia, was a tribal area of Alevi Kurds, who were both religiously and ethnically unorthodox in the eyes of the Turkish Republic. In the mid-1930s, the Kemalist regime tried to subdue this anarchic region by imposing “law and order,” and, of course, taxes. Some tribes conceded defeat, others resisted.

One day in March 1937, a strategic wooden bridge was burned down and telephone lines were cut. The government saw this as the beginning of a big rebellion. The military soon launched a brutal campaign on the province, in order to kill the rebels, but also a great many number of civilians.

The accounts from the massacres come mainly from the survivors, such as Nuri Dersimi, who wrote a book 13 years later in Syria. He explains that when troops began hunting down the rebellious tribes, the men gave battle, and the women and children hid in deep caves.

“Thousands of these women and children perished because the army bricked up the entrances of the caves,” Dersimi writes. “At the entrances of other caves, the military lit fires to cause those inside to suffocate. Those who tried to escape from the caves were finished off with bayonets.”

It is safe to assume that Dersimi, a Kurdish nationalist, is biased. But other accounts confirm the terrible story. Martin van Bruinessen, a Dutch anthropologist and an expert on Kurdish history, says, “At several instances, the [official military] reports mention the arrest of women and children, but elsewhere we read of indiscriminate killing of humans and animals.

“With professional pride, reports list how many ‘bandits’ and dependents were ‘annihilated,’ and how many villages and fields were burned. Groups who were hiding in caves were entirely wiped out.”

Overall, Bruinessen estimates “almost 10 percent of the entire population of Tunceli was killed.”

You can wonder where Tunceli was. Well, it was Dersim’s new title after the “pacification” of the province. Just like thousands of other Kurdish towns and villages, it was given an artificial Turkish name.

The ‘historical context’

This is the unpleasant story of Dersim. One can say that it needs to be seen in its “historical context.” That was a time when many other authoritarian governments, too, were terribly brutal toward civilian populations. Even Winston Churchill, as colonial secretary, was “strongly in favor of using poison gas against uncivilized tribes” in Iraq.

That contextualization certainly has a logic. What doesn’t have one is the fact that Turkey continues to idealize its authoritarian age and avoids facing its misdeeds. That was so apparent in Öymen’s defense of his own words. “I am just defending Atatürk’s methods,” he said. “Shall we deny him?”

Yes, we can deny, and criticize, even Atatürk. The regime that allows that is called liberal democracy. And we are getting closer to it day-by-day.

Link

Mustafa Akyol is finally back, and as usual I disagree with him.

"the Kemalist regime tried to subdue this anarchic region by imposing “law and order,” and, of course, taxes. Some tribes conceded defeat, others resisted."

The tribesman who resisted did not represent the Kurdish or Alevi people, they were illiterate local elites who did not want to give up their power to the new Turkish nation-state. They rallied local support through reactionary sentiment against the new secular order, and the desire to restore the Islamic Caliphate.

Alevis were very strong supporters of Mustafa Kemal because of his secular and racially inclusive ideology. Why would they support his ideology if Mustafa Kemal saw Alevis as "ethnically unorthodox", as Mustafa Akyol claims?

Are there any Alevis that can clarify this?

[Alexandros]

Re: The Dersim Genocide 1938

I always thought that the Dersim revolt was primarily an Islamist uprising. There wasn't much Kurdish or Alevi nationalism at the time. Infact, many Eastern Anatolian intellectuals who today would not be identified as Turks (such as Ziya Gökalp) were ardent Turkish nationalists.

I might be wrong. Anyone knowledgeable enough to cure my ignorance?

Mustafa AKYOL


How Turkey massacred the Kurds of Dersim

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Mustafa AKYOL

A great problem facing Turkey is that the country continues to idealize its authoritarian age and avoid facing its misdeeds

After five months on book leave, it is nice to be back in the Daily News.

I hope all has been well for everybody since June. As for Turkey, many new events and debates seem to have unfolded, but the scene is pretty much the same. Once again, one of the taboos of our not-so-democratic Republic is being hotly debated. (This time it is the “Kurdish question.”)

Once again, our incumbent “Islamist” party, despite the reckless machismo of its leader, proves to be more liberal and reformist than its secularist opponents. And, once again, some pundits in Turkey, or Washington, are propagating the line that this “Islamist” government is pushing us into “darkness,” by ending the good old days of the Kemalist quasi-dictatorship.

In fact, understanding the true nature of that Kemalist era is the key to realizing whether Turkey is heading toward “darkness,” or actually moving away from it. And Onur Öymen, the second man of the secularist opposition, the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, just gave us a good opportunity to reflect on that question a little bit.

Dersim? What Dersim?

Öymen’s controversial remarks came last week, when he strongly opposed the reform initiative to broaden Kurdish rights and disarm the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. Criticizing the governments’ peacenik motto, “Let mothers cry no more,” Öymen said that Turkey has fought many lethal enemies, both within and without, and never stopped doing so for such bleeding-heart concerns. “Did mothers not cry in the Dersim uprising,” he asked. “No one stood up and said, ‘Let mothers cry no more’ and ‘let’s stop this struggle.’”

Protests then flared against Öymen, throughout the country, and even from some of the saner members of his party. “Dersim,” they said, “cannot be justified.”

But what was this Dersim thing all about?

Many Turks have no clue about the event because this nasty episode, like several others, is carefully excluded from “official history,” the only history they know. Even some Western authorities, such as Bernard Lewis and Stanford J. Shaw, have not written a single word about it in their books on modern Turkish history. Yet the violent suppression of the Dersim Revolt of 1937-38 is too tragic to be forgotten, let alone be cheered for.

Here is the briefest story. Dersim, a town in eastern Anatolia, was a tribal area of Alevi Kurds, who were both religiously and ethnically unorthodox in the eyes of the Turkish Republic. In the mid-1930s, the Kemalist regime tried to subdue this anarchic region by imposing “law and order,” and, of course, taxes. Some tribes conceded defeat, others resisted.

One day in March 1937, a strategic wooden bridge was burned down and telephone lines were cut. The government saw this as the beginning of a big rebellion. The military soon launched a brutal campaign on the province, in order to kill the rebels, but also a great many number of civilians.

The accounts from the massacres come mainly from the survivors, such as Nuri Dersimi, who wrote a book 13 years later in Syria. He explains that when troops began hunting down the rebellious tribes, the men gave battle, and the women and children hid in deep caves.

“Thousands of these women and children perished because the army bricked up the entrances of the caves,” Dersimi writes. “At the entrances of other caves, the military lit fires to cause those inside to suffocate. Those who tried to escape from the caves were finished off with bayonets.”

It is safe to assume that Dersimi, a Kurdish nationalist, is biased. But other accounts confirm the terrible story. Martin van Bruinessen, a Dutch anthropologist and an expert on Kurdish history, says, “At several instances, the [official military] reports mention the arrest of women and children, but elsewhere we read of indiscriminate killing of humans and animals.

“With professional pride, reports list how many ‘bandits’ and dependents were ‘annihilated,’ and how many villages and fields were burned. Groups who were hiding in caves were entirely wiped out.”

Overall, Bruinessen estimates “almost 10 percent of the entire population of Tunceli was killed.”

You can wonder where Tunceli was. Well, it was Dersim’s new title after the “pacification” of the province. Just like thousands of other Kurdish towns and villages, it was given an artificial Turkish name.

The ‘historical context’

This is the unpleasant story of Dersim. One can say that it needs to be seen in its “historical context.” That was a time when many other authoritarian governments, too, were terribly brutal toward civilian populations. Even Winston Churchill, as colonial secretary, was “strongly in favor of using poison gas against uncivilized tribes” in Iraq.

That contextualization certainly has a logic. What doesn’t have one is the fact that Turkey continues to idealize its authoritarian age and avoids facing its misdeeds. That was so apparent in Öymen’s defense of his own words. “I am just defending Atatürk’s methods,” he said. “Shall we deny him?”

Yes, we can deny, and criticize, even Atatürk. The regime that allows that is called liberal democracy. And we are getting closer to it day-by-day.

Link

[Catharsis]

Re: The Dersim Genocide 1938

The truth is that people can call their property by whatever name they want. What have you Armenians done for the last 90 years about opposing the misuse and expansion of the word "Anatolia", apart form having wet deams about "Wilsonian Armenia"?

There have been scholars who have published works exposing this from the very beginning, however, I do agree that we should have done more in this regard in terms of education and history, and not only in Armenian (narrow) literature, but world literature. However it is never too late. The process begins when we talk about these things and expose these aspects of Turkish policy which is of course part of erasing the memory along with the cultural genocide of the remaining Armenian monuments (erasing the evidence).

[bell-the-cat]

Re: The Dersim Genocide 1938

Very good point Armanen, Eastern Anatolia begins at Cilicia-Armenia Minor (Lesser Armenia) borders. Armenian Plateau is not Eastern Anatolia - this distorted geographic description has been put into circulation by the Turkish government and has today unfortunately almost become a 'truth.'

The truth is that people can call their property by whatever name they want. What have you Armenians done for the last 90 years about opposing the misuse and expansion of the word "Anatolia", apart form having wet deams about "Wilsonian Armenia"?

[Catharsis]

Re: The Dersim Genocide 1938

By 'eastern Anatolia' are you referring to the eastern part of what is actually Anatolia in modern day turkey or eastern Asia Minor aka the Armenian Highlands?

Very good point Armanen, Eastern Anatolia begins at Cilicia-Armenia Minor (Lesser Armenia) borders. Armenian Plateau is not Eastern Anatolia - this distorted geographic description has been put into circulation by the Turkish government and has today unfortunately almost become a 'truth.'

[Armanen]

Re: The Dersim Genocide 1938

By 'eastern Anatolia' are you referring to the eastern part of what is actually Anatolia in modern day turkey or eastern Asia Minor aka the Armenian Highlands?

[egeli]

Re: The Dersim Genocide 1938

Democratic Society Party (DTP) members also held a demonstration in the city, holding posters showing Öymen with a Hitler-like toothbrush moustache.


Alevis up in arms against CHP's Öymen after Dersim remarks

16 November 2009, Monday

TODAY'S ZAMAN WITH WIRES İSTANBUL

Turkey's Alevis have continued to slam the remarks of Republican People's Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman Onur Öymen, who on Tuesday referred to the Turkish government's response to a 1937 rebellion in the predominantly Alevi city of Tunceli, then known as Dersim, as an example of fighting terrorism.

On Saturday, 43 civil society organizations in the eastern province of Diyarbakır made a joint statement calling on Öymen to resign. Harika Peker from the Diyarbakır Democracy Platform read the joint statement, saying the speech by Öymen has taken its place in history as a disgrace. “We condemn Onur Öymen, who wanted more pain to be experienced through his speech in Parliament and who lacks any conscientious feelings as well as CHP mentality, and those who applauded him.”

During a speech criticizing the government’s Kurdish initiative, which seeks to extend the rights of Kurds in Turkey to alleviate and ultimately end the separatist terrorism of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in Parliament on Tuesday, Öymen said: “Didn’t mothers also cry at the time of the Sheikh Said Rebellion? Didn’t mothers also cry at the time of the Dersim Rebellion?” in response to the government’s used of the phrase “Let no more mothers cry” as part of its efforts to end the PKK’s campaign of terrorism.

The rebellion took place in 1937 in Dersim, which had historically been a semi-autonomous region. Dersim was renamed Tunceli after the rebellion. The rebellion was led by Seyyid Riza, the chief of a Zaza (Kurdish) tribe in the region. The Turkish government at the time, led by İsmet İnönü, responded with air strikes against the rebels. Thousands were killed in the campaign. Öymen’s reference to the Dersim rebels as an example of terrorists continued to draw anger and resentment from the country’s Alevis and Zazas.

A group of Alevis in the Aegean province of İzmir, a city among the strongholds of the CHP, also gathered on Saturday to protest Öymen and the CHP. Holding banners reading “Racist Öymen will give account” and “Racist CHP go away Dersim,” the group also called on Öymen to resign.



Alevis across Turkey held demonstrations to protest CHP deputy Onur Öymen’s reference to the Dersim Rebellion as an example of terrorism. They laid black wreaths in front of CHP’s local offices.


Another harsh reaction to Öymen came from the southern province of Mersin, where various NGOs, including the Federation of Tunceli Residents, marched on Saturday. Democratic Society Party (DTP) members also held a demonstration in the city, holding posters showing Öymen with a Hitler-like toothbrush moustache. The group also chanted slogans protesting Öymen. Group spokesperson and DTP Provincial Chairman Serhat Ölmez said Öymen’s remarks are evidence of the CHP’s years-long policies of denial and destruction. The group laid a black wreath in front of the CHP’s local office. The group then held a moment of silence to remember those who were killed in the Dersim rebellion.

In the eastern province of Batman, a group of people including representatives of political parties and civil society groups also laid a black wreath in front of the CHP’s local office. Association of Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed Peoples’ (MAZLUM-DER) Batman branch head Murat Çiçek said in order for the democratic initiative to be successful Turkey should shed light on the past’s unfortunate events. “We condemn Onur Öymen and the mentality he represents and we want everyone in favor of peace to show their reaction,” he said.

Following Öymen’s remarks, residents of Tunceli, a predominantly Alevi city, also put up posters throughout the city showing Öymen with a Hitler-like toothbrush moustache to protest Öymen.

Link

I always thought that the Dersim revolt was primarily an Islamist uprising. There wasn't much Kurdish or Alevi nationalism at the time. Infact, many Eastern Anatolian intellectuals who today would not be identified as Turks (such as Ziya Gökalp) were ardent Turkish nationalists.

I might be wrong. Anyone knowledgeable enough to cure my ignorance?

[Alexandros]

Re: The Dersim Genocide 1938


Democratic Society Party (DTP) members also held a demonstration in the city, holding posters showing Öymen with a Hitler-like toothbrush moustache.


Alevis up in arms against CHP's Öymen after Dersim remarks

16 November 2009, Monday

TODAY'S ZAMAN WITH WIRES İSTANBUL

Turkey's Alevis have continued to slam the remarks of Republican People's Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman Onur Öymen, who on Tuesday referred to the Turkish government's response to a 1937 rebellion in the predominantly Alevi city of Tunceli, then known as Dersim, as an example of fighting terrorism.

On Saturday, 43 civil society organizations in the eastern province of Diyarbakır made a joint statement calling on Öymen to resign. Harika Peker from the Diyarbakır Democracy Platform read the joint statement, saying the speech by Öymen has taken its place in history as a disgrace. “We condemn Onur Öymen, who wanted more pain to be experienced through his speech in Parliament and who lacks any conscientious feelings as well as CHP mentality, and those who applauded him.”

During a speech criticizing the government’s Kurdish initiative, which seeks to extend the rights of Kurds in Turkey to alleviate and ultimately end the separatist terrorism of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in Parliament on Tuesday, Öymen said: “Didn’t mothers also cry at the time of the Sheikh Said Rebellion? Didn’t mothers also cry at the time of the Dersim Rebellion?” in response to the government’s used of the phrase “Let no more mothers cry” as part of its efforts to end the PKK’s campaign of terrorism.

The rebellion took place in 1937 in Dersim, which had historically been a semi-autonomous region. Dersim was renamed Tunceli after the rebellion. The rebellion was led by Seyyid Riza, the chief of a Zaza (Kurdish) tribe in the region. The Turkish government at the time, led by İsmet İnönü, responded with air strikes against the rebels. Thousands were killed in the campaign. Öymen’s reference to the Dersim rebels as an example of terrorists continued to draw anger and resentment from the country’s Alevis and Zazas.

A group of Alevis in the Aegean province of İzmir, a city among the strongholds of the CHP, also gathered on Saturday to protest Öymen and the CHP. Holding banners reading “Racist Öymen will give account” and “Racist CHP go away Dersim,” the group also called on Öymen to resign.



Alevis across Turkey held demonstrations to protest CHP deputy Onur Öymen’s reference to the Dersim Rebellion as an example of terrorism. They laid black wreaths in front of CHP’s local offices.


Another harsh reaction to Öymen came from the southern province of Mersin, where various NGOs, including the Federation of Tunceli Residents, marched on Saturday. Democratic Society Party (DTP) members also held a demonstration in the city, holding posters showing Öymen with a Hitler-like toothbrush moustache. The group also chanted slogans protesting Öymen. Group spokesperson and DTP Provincial Chairman Serhat Ölmez said Öymen’s remarks are evidence of the CHP’s years-long policies of denial and destruction. The group laid a black wreath in front of the CHP’s local office. The group then held a moment of silence to remember those who were killed in the Dersim rebellion.

In the eastern province of Batman, a group of people including representatives of political parties and civil society groups also laid a black wreath in front of the CHP’s local office. Association of Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed Peoples’ (MAZLUM-DER) Batman branch head Murat Çiçek said in order for the democratic initiative to be successful Turkey should shed light on the past’s unfortunate events. “We condemn Onur Öymen and the mentality he represents and we want everyone in favor of peace to show their reaction,” he said.

Following Öymen’s remarks, residents of Tunceli, a predominantly Alevi city, also put up posters throughout the city showing Öymen with a Hitler-like toothbrush moustache to protest Öymen.

Link

[Jam]

Re: The Dersim Genocide 1938

Zaza / Dimili (Kirmanci/kizilbash) are not Kurds. There're similarities between them, but that does not automaticly mean that they are Kurds.

Exactly. Zazas are not Kurds but because they have lived in the same area with Kurds they have some similarities. It is actually the Iranian heritage that keeps us together. Persians, Zazas, Talysh, Pastoons, Lor, Gorans, Baloch, Tadshik/Persians, Tats, Kurds, Gilaks, Ossetians (Alanians) are all Iranic and speak an Iranian language.

Kurds copy the Turks by saying everybody is Kurdish. Zazas, Gilaks, Talysh, Lor, Goran, Baloch are according to those so called Kurdish scholars and professors of Kurdish origin and speak Kurdish dialects... Although none of these people even understand Kurdish and feel any connection to them.