Facing the Dersim Genocide
4 May 2024
Today is the 87th anniversary of the Dersim Genocide. We commemorate those who lost their lives in the genocide.
It is seen that Dersim, which was seen as an obstacle to the construction of the “nation state,” along with an aim to destroy its opinion leaders, to murder those in opposition and to subject the local people to exile with the 1925 Eastern Reform Plan, the 1936 Law on the Administration of the Tunceli Province, and the establishment of the 4th General Inspectorate, which was established on the basis of the Eastern Reform Plan and included Dersim.
On 4 May 1937, with the decision of the Council of Ministers within the framework of the Tunceli Law No. 2884 dated 25 December 1935, military operations were launched against Dersim and tens of thousands of Kurds and Alevis were massacred during these operations. The military operations continued throughout 1938 and the Dersim was largely depopulated through massacres and forced migration (exile).
On 15 November 1937, the Kurdish Alevi opinion leader of Dersim, Seyit Rıza (74 years old), his son Resik Hüseyin (16 years old) and a total of 7 people (according to some rumors, 11 people) were executed in Elâzığ Buğday Square without following any rule of law, without a trial, without a proper court.
The information provided by İhsan Sabri Çağlayangil, then Deputy Director General of Security, in his memoirs confirms that there was no rebellion in Dersim as claimed.
Human rights defenders characterize these massacres in Dersim in 1937-38 as genocide as defined in Article 76 of the Turkish Penal Code. The people of Dersim, on the other hand, continue to characterize what happened as “tertele.” Furthermore, within the framework of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide adopted by the United Nations in 1948, it is confirmed that what happened in Dersim constitutes the crime of genocide.
Research in official records revealed that 13,160 Dersim people, including women and children, were killed and 11,818 were deported in the Dersim Genocide of 1937-38. Another dimension of the genocide is the fact that a generation known as the “Missing Girls of Dersim” were separated from their families and handed as foster children and wives to families they did not know or recognize.
Although İHD characterizes what happened in Dersim in 1937-1938 as genocide, it argues that this historical tragedy is a matter of facing the past in terms of human rights law and can only be dealt with within this framework. In order to face the past and reveal the whole truth, there must be a strong political will.
In 2011, then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke about the “Dersim Tertelesi” at the AKP’s expanded provincial chairpersons’ meeting showing the Dersim Report prepared by the Gendarmerie General Command and blamed the CHP of the time, confirming the above-mentioned information: “If an apology is to be made on behalf of the state, if there is such literature, I apologize, I do. Dersim is one of the most painful and tragic events in our recent history. Dersim is a tragedy waiting to be illuminated.” However, no concrete steps have been taken to date to fulfill the apology.
In order for the state to face Dersim, a “Truth Commission for Dersim” must be established within the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, and after the commission’s work is completed, the necessary legal arrangements should be introduced in line with the commission’s recommendations, and the genocide must be recognized, apologies must be made and restorative justice solutions must be emphasized.
The Human Rights Association calls on the authorities:
- To officially apologize to the people of Dersim and to reinstate the name Dersim,
- To open the state archives on the Dersim Genocide and other mass killings and deportations to the public and universities,
- To restore the dignity of Seyit Rıza and his friends who were executed during the Dersim Genocide, to disclose the locations of their graves, and to work to ensure that other mass graves are duly exhumed,
- To reveal the fate of the girls known as the “Missing Girls of Dersim,” who were not killed in military operations but were handed to military families as foster children or domestic helpers, and to reunite them with their families,
- To abandon the policy of depopulation of Dersim, canceling the ongoing construction of HEPPs and other dams, and putting an end to natural and cultural destruction,
- To ensure that the natural and cultural belief centers in Dersim are preserved and handed over to local representatives of the people of Dersim (such as Dersim Municipality).
Human Rights Association