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{{Short description|Kurdish uprising against the Turkish government in Dersim, eastern Turkey}}{{User:RMCD bot/subject notice|1=Dersim massacre|2=Talk:Dersim rebellion#Requested move 12 May 2024}}{{use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}(File:Turkish soldiers and local people of Dersim region.jpg|thumb|Turkish soldiers with civilians who official documents say were internally exiled; Salman Yeşildağ said they included his sister and were executed after the photo was taken.NEWS, 'Dersim Katliamı'ndaki o fotoğrafın sırrı ortaya çıktı,weblink 24 December 2014, Radikal, 23 December 2014, )The Dersim rebellion (, ) was a KurdishNazmi Sevgen, Zazalar ve Kızılbaşlar: Coğrafya-Tarih-Hukuk-Folklor-Teogoni, Kalan Yayınları, Ağustos 1999, {{ISBN|975-8424-00-9}}, s. 12.BOOK,weblink Être Kurde, un délit?: portrait d'un peuple nié – Jacqueline Sammali – Google Livres, 9782738437723, 2013-12-24, Sammali, Jacqueline, 1995, Harmattan, BOOK,weblink Les Kurdes et leur histoire - Sabri Cigerli – Google Livres, 9782738476623, 2013-12-24, Cigerli, Sabri, 1999, Harmattan, WEB,weblink Can Kurds rely on the Turkish state?, Weeklyzaman.com, 2011-10-14, 2013-12-24,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20141129011435weblink">weblink 2014-11-29, dead, WEB,weblink 16. Turkey/Kurds (1922–present), Uca.edu, 2013-12-24, uprising against the central government in the Dersim region of eastern Turkey, which includes parts of Tunceli Province, Elazığ Province, and Bingöl Province.Birinci Genel Müfettişlik Bölgesi, Güney Doğu, İstanbul, p. 66, 194. {{in lang|tr}} The rebellion was led by Seyid Riza, a chieftain of the Abasan tribe.WEB,weblink Accueil – Sciences Po Violence de masse et Résistance – Réseau de recherche, www.massviolence.org, 13 August 2017, In 1937 and 1938, the Turkish Armed Forces carried out three Dersim operations against the rebellion, including the Dersim massacre (),BOOK, Strasser, Sabine, Akçınar, Mustafa, Migration and Social Remittances in a Global Europe, 2017, Palgrave Macmillan UK, 978-1-137-60126-1, 143–163,weblink en, Dersim Across Borders: Political Transmittances Between the Kurdish-Turkish Province Tunceli and Europe, 10.1057/978-1-137-60126-1_7, JOURNAL, Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma: The Case of the Dersim Massacre 1937-38, Is This a Culture of Trauma? An Interdisciplinary Perspective, 1 January 2013, 63–75, 10.1163/9781848881624_008, 9781848881624, Çelik, Filiz, (sometimes called the Dersim genocide)JOURNAL, Ayata, Bilgin, Hakyemez, Serra, The AKP's engagement with Turkey's past crimes: an analysis of PM Erdoğan's "Dersim apology", Dialectical Anthropology, 2013, 37, 1, 131–143, 10.1007/s10624-013-9304-3, 144503079, en, 1573-0786, JOURNAL, Deniz, Dilşa, Re-assessing the Genocide of Kurdish Alevis in Dersim, 1937-38, Genocide Studies and Prevention, 2020, 14, 2, 20–43, 10.5038/1911-9933.14.2.1728,weblink 1911-0359, free, JOURNAL, Ilengiz, Çiçek, Erecting a Statue in the Land of the Fallen: Gendered Dynamics of the Making of Tunceli and Commemorating Seyyid Rıza in Dersim, L'Homme, 2019, 30, 2, 75–92, 10.14220/lhom.2019.30.2.75, 213908434, JOURNAL, Erbal, Ayda, The Armenian Genocide, AKA the Elephant in the Room, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2015, 47, 4, 783–790, 10.1017/S0020743815000987, 43998041, 162834123,weblink 0020-7438, JOURNAL, Deniz, Dilşa, 2020-09-04, Re-assessing the Genocide of Kurdish Alevis in Dersim, 1937-38,weblink Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal, 14, 2, 10.5038/1911-9933.14.2.1728, 7 May 2024, 1911-0359, of civilians: thousands of Kurds were killed and many others were internally displaced. Twenty tons of “Chloracetophenon, Iperit and so on” were ordered and used in the massacre.WEB, Aksoy, Gürdal, "Gas at 'Home,' Gas in the World, On the Use of Poison Gas by the Turkish State in Dersim",weblink March 7, 2020, March 18, 2020, WEB, kahraman, sevim, 2019-05-03, Dersim Katliamı'nda kullanılan zehirli gazlar Almanya'dan alınmış- VİDEO,weblink 2024-05-06, PİRHA, tr, JOURNAL, Deniz, Dilşa, 2020-09-04, Re-assessing the Genocide of Kurdish Alevis in Dersim, 1937-38,weblink Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal, 14, 2, 10.5038/1911-9933.14.2.1728, 7 May 2024, 1911-0359, On 23 November 2011, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan apologized for the massacre, describing it as "one of the most tragic events of our near history" adding that, whilst some sought to justify it as a legitimate response to events on the ground, it was in reality "an operation which was planned step by step". However, this is viewed with suspicion by some, "who see it as an opportunistic move against the main opposition party, the secular CHP."NEWS, Turkey PM Erdogan apologises for 1930s Kurdish killings,weblink 24 November 2011, BBC News, 23 November 2011, {{Campaignbox Kurdish Rebellions in Turkey}}

Background

Ottoman period

Kurdish tribes, which were feudal (manorial) communities led by chieftains (agha) during the Ottoman period, enjoyed a certain degree of freedom within the boundaries of the manors owned by the aghas. Local authority in these small manorial communities was in the hands of feudal lords, tribal chieftains and other dignitaries, who owned the land and ruled over the serfs who lived and worked on their estates.Faik Bulut, Devletin Gözüyle Türkiye'de Kürt İsyanlar (Kurdish rebellions in Turkey, from the government point of view), Yön Yayınclık, 1991, 214–215. {{in lang|tr}} However, the general political authority in the provinces, such as Dersim, was in the hands of the Ottoman government.

Early republican era

Following the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, some Kurdish tribes became unhappy about certain aspects of Atatürk's "Kemalist policies", described as "the ideology of the new political élite tied to the single-party régime", imposing a policy of Turkification, including the removal of functionaries of "Kurdish race" in Turkish KurdistanWEB, The Massacre in Dersim Still Haunts Kurds in Turkey, Fondation-Institut kurde de Paris, Ashly, Jaclynn, January 13, 2021,weblink 2021-08-12, WEB, A short history of Turkification: From Dersim to Tunceli, Ahval, Kardaş, Ümit, May 30, 2019,weblink 2021-08-12, 28 November 2020,weblink dead, WEB, Dersim massacre 1937–38, SciencesPo, Hans-Lukas, Kieser, July 27, 2011,weblink 2021-08-12, BOOK, Princeton University Press, 978-1-4008-8371-4, Hassan, Mona, Longing for the Lost Caliphate: A Transregional History, 2017-01-10,weblink and land reform,JOURNAL,weblink Reconfiguring the Turkish nation in the 1930s, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 8:2, Yale University, Soner Çağaptay, 2002, 8, 2, 67–82, 10.1080/13537110208428662, 143855822, and staged armed revolts that were put down by the Turkish military.Dersim had been a particularly difficult province for the Ottoman government to control, with 11 different armed rebellions between 1876 and 1923.BOOK, McDowall, David, A Modern History of the Kurds, 2007, Tauris & Co, London, {{RP|207–208}}NTV Tarih, Issue: 11, "Dersim 1937–1938" The rebellious stance of the aghas in Dersim continued during the early years of the Republic of Turkey. Aghas in Dersim objected to losing authority in their manorial affairs and refused to pay taxes; and complaints from the provincial governors in Dersim were sent to the central government in Ankara,WEB, Military documents to shine light on 'Dersim massacre'

last=ZiflioÄŸlu

date=November 18, 2009

weblink>access-date=2010-09-22, which favoured land reform and direct control over the country's farmlands, as well as state planning for agriculture

. In an Interior Ministry report in 1926, it was considered necessary to use force against the aghas of Dersim.BeÅŸikçi, Ismail. (1990) Tunceli Kanunu (1935) ve Dersim Jenosidi (The 1935 law concerning Tunceli and the genocide of Dersim), Bonn, p.29. {{in lang>tr}} On November 1, 1936, during a speech in parliament, Atatürk described Dersim as Turkey's most important interior problem.Hasretyan, M. A. (1995) Türkiye'de Kürt Sorunu (1918–1940), Berlin, Wêşanên, ënstîtuya Kurdî: I., p. 262 Resettlement Law The Turkification process began with the 1934 Turkish Resettlement Law.WEB, Reconfiguring the Turkish nation in the 1930s, Harvard, ÇaÄŸaptay, Soner, 2002,weblink 2010-08-02, 12 May 2013,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130512014341weblink">weblink dead, Its measures included the forced relocation of people within Turkey, with the aim of promoting cultural homogeneity. In 1935, the Tunceli Law was passed to apply the Resettlement Law to the newly-named region of Tunceli, previously known as Dersim and populated by Kurdish Alevis.BOOK, Lundgren, Asa, 44, The unwelcome neighbour: Turkey's Kurdish policy, 2007, Tauris & Co, London, This area had a reputation for being rebellious, having been the scene of eleven separate periods of armed conflict over the previous 40 years. "Tunceli" law The Dersim region included the Tunceli Province whose name was changed from Dersim to Tunceli with the "Law on Administration of the Tunceli Province" (Tunceli Vilayetinin Ä°daresi Hakkında Kanun), no. 2884 of 25 December 1935New perspectives on Turkey, Issues 1–4, Simon's Rock of Bard College, 1999 p. 15. on January 4, 1936.Paul J. White, Primitive rebels or revolutionary modernizers?: the Kurdish national movement in Turkey, Zed Books, 2000, {{ISBN|978-1-85649-822-7}}, p. 80. Fourth General Inspectorate In order to consolidate its authority in the process of Turkification of religious and ethnic minorities,WEB,weblink Young Turk social engineering : mass violence and the nation state in eastern Turkey, 1913– 1950, Ãœngör, Umut, University of Amsterdam, 244–247, 8 April 2020, Cemil Koçak, Umumi müfettiÅŸlikler (1927–1952), Ä°letiÅŸim Yayınları, 2003, {{ISBN|978-975-05-0129-6}}, p. 144. the Turkish Grand National Assembly passed Law No. 1164 on 25 June 1927WEB,weblink Üçüncü Umumi MüfettiÅŸliÄŸi'nin Kurulması ve III. Umumî MüfettiÅŸ Tahsin Uzer'in Bazı Önemli Faaliyetleri, Dergipark, 2, 8 April 2020, which allowed the state to establish Inspectorates-General.BOOK, Bayir, Derya, Minorities and Nationalism in Turkish Law, 2016-04-22, Routledge, 978-1-317-09579-8, 139, en, Following the First Inspectorate-General (1 January 1928, Diyarbakır Province),Birinci Genel MüfettiÅŸlik Bölgesi, p. 66. the Second Inspectorate-General (19 February 1934, Edirne Province) and the Third Inspectorate-General (25 August 1935, Erzurum Province),Cumhuriyet, August 26, 1935.Erdal AydoÄŸan, "Üçüncü Umumi MüfettiÅŸliÄŸi'nin Kurulması ve III. Umumî MüfettiÅŸ Tahsin Uzer'in Bazı Önemli Faaliyetleri", Atatürk Yolu, Ankara Ãœniversitesi Türk Ä°nkılâp Tarihi Enstitüsü, Vol. 33–34, pp. 1–14. the Fourth Inspectorate-General (Dördüncü Umumi MüfettiÅŸlik) was established in January 1936, in the traditional Dersim region, which includes Tunceli Province, Elazığ Province and Bingöl Province.BOOK, Cagaptay, Soner, Islam, Secularism and Nationalism in Modern Turkey: Who is a Turk?, 2 May 2006, Routledge, 978-1-134-17448-5, 108–110, en, The Fourth Inspectorate-General was governed by a "Governor Commander" within a military authority. He was given wide-ranging authority in juridical, military and civilian matters. He also had the power to resettle or exile people who lived in the region. To quell the rebellion, the Turkish Interior Minister Sükrü Kaya ordered that boys and girls of the Dersim region were to be educated in boarding schools outside of the Dersim region.JOURNAL, Turkyilmaz, Zeynep, 2016, Maternal Colonialism and Turkish Woman's Burden in Dersim: Educating the "Mountain Flowers" of Dersim,weblink Journal of Women's History, 28, 3, 166–167, 10.1353/jowh.2016.0029, 151865028, 1527-2036, Project MUSE, In those schools, they were to be Turkified and following their graduation, married off to each other. Women were to be Turkified at an earlier stage than men as women lacked contact with the outside world and if not Turkified, were unable to pass the Turkishness on to their children. In September 1937, the Elazig Girls' Institute in which the aim was to raise Turkish women out of Kurdish girls was established in Elazıg.On 1 November 1936, during a speech in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Atatürk described the situation in Dersim as Turkey's most important internal problem.Hasretyan, M. A. (1995) Türkiye'de Kürt Sorunu (1918–1940), Berlin, Wêşanên, ënstîtuya Kurdî: I., p. 262. {{in lang|tr}} The rebellion File:Dersim region in the mid 1930s English.png|thumb|300px|A 1937 map of Dersim showing the central district, HozatHozatAfter the "Tunceli" Law, the Turkish military built observation posts in certain districts. Following public meetings in January 1937, a letter of protest against the law was written to be sent to the local governor. According to Kurdish sources, the emissaries of the letter were arrested and executed. In May, a group of local people ambushed a police convoy in response.BOOK, Jwaideh, Wadie, The Kurdish National Movement: Its Origins and Development, 2006, Syracuse University Press, 215, Meeting at Halbori cells Seyid Riza, the chieftain of Yukarı Abbas UÅŸağı, sent his followers to the Haydaran, Demenan, Yusufan, and KureyÅŸan tribes to make an alliance.Faik Bulut, ibid, p. 221. {{in lang|tr}}According to Turkish authorities, on March 20–21, 1937, at 23:00 hrs, the Demenan and Haydaran tribes broke a bridge connecting Pah and Kahmut in the Harçik Valley. The Inspector General gave the order to prepare for action to the 2nd Mobile Gendarmerie Battalion at Pülümür, the 3rd Mobile Gendarmerie Battalion at Pülür, the 9th Gendarmier Battalion at Mazkirt, and the Mobile Gendarmerie Regiment at Hozat, and sent one infantry company of the 9th Mobile Gendarmier Battalion to Pah. Turkish military operations File:Breguet 19 Sabiha.jpg|thumb|250px|Sabiha Gökçen holding a bomb before the bombardment operation over Dersim with her Breguet 19Breguet 19File:Sabiha Gokcen and her colleagues in front of Breguet 19.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Sabiha GökçenSabiha Gökçen(File:Lost girls of Dersim.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Local people of Dersim, 1938)Around 25,000 troops were deployed to quell the rebellion. This task was substantially completed by the summer and the leaders of the rebellion, including tribal leader Seyid Riza, were hanged. However, remnants of the rebel forces continued to resist and the number of troops in the region was doubled. The area was also bombed from the air. The rebels continued to resist until they ran out of ammunition, in late 1938, by which time the region was devastated.BOOK, Chaliand, Gerard, A People without a country: the Kurds and Kurdistan,weblink registration, 1993, Olive Branch Press, London, 58, 9780940793927, According to Osman PamukoÄŸlu, a general in Turkish Army in the 1990s, Atatürk had given the operational order himself."PamukoÄŸlu: Dersim'in emrini Atatürk verdi", Hürriyet, August 19, 2010. {{in lang|tr}} 1937 First Dersim Operation On September 10–12, 1937, Seyid Riza came to the government building of the Erzincan Province for peace talks and was arrested.Ahmet Kahraman, pp. 286–287. {{in lang|tr}} On the next day, he was transferred to the headquarters of the General Inspectorate at Elazığ and hanged with 6 (or 10) of his fellows on November 15–18, 1937Ahmet Kahraman, pp. 292–293. {{in lang|tr}} Ihsan Sabri ÇaÄŸlayangil, who would later become foreign minister,WEB, List of Former Ministers of Foreign Affairs,weblink 2020-07-22, www.mfa.gov.tr, arranged the trials and hanging of the leaders of the rebellion and some of their sons.BOOK, Van Bruinessen, Martin, Conceptual and historical dimensions of genocide, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994, Andreopoulos, George J., 141–170, They were: Seyit Rıza Resik Hüseyin (Seyit Rıza's son, 16 years old) Seyit Hüseyin (the chieftain of KureyÅŸan-Seyhan tribe) Fındık Aga (Yusfanlı Kamer Aga's son) Hasan Aga (of the Demenan tribe, Cebrail AÄŸa's son) Hasan (a KureyÅŸan tribesman Ulkiye's son) Ali Aga (Mirza Ali's son) On November 17, 1937, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk came to Pertek to take part in the opening ceremony for the Singeç Bridge.Cumhuriyet, November 18, 1937, 17 Kasım 1937: Atatürk'ün Diyarbakır'dan Elâzığ'a geliÅŸi, Tunceli'nin Pertek kazasına geçerek Murat Nehri üzerinde Singeç Köprüsü'nü hizmete açışı. {{in lang|tr}}"Atatürk Pertek'te" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100727231843weblink |date=2010-07-27 }}, The government of Pertek District. {{in lang|tr}} In his journey to Elazığ the same month, he was accompanied by the Minister of the Interior Şükrü Kaya and Sabiha Gökçen.JOURNAL, Kezer, Zeynep, 2014, Spatializing Difference: The Making of an Internal Border in Early Republican Elazığ, Turkey,weblink Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 73, 4, 523, 10.1525/jsah.2014.73.4.507, 10.1525/jsah.2014.73.4.507, 0037-9808, 1938 Second Dersim Operation The prime minister, Celal Bayar (in office: October 25, 1937 – January 25, 1939) had agreed to an attack on the Dersim rebels."1937–1938’de Dersim’de neler oldu?" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100522181621weblink |date=2010-05-22 }}, Taraf, November 16, 2008. {{in lang|tr}} The operation started on January 2, 1938 and finished on August 7, 1938. Third Dersim Operation {{Expand section|date=March 2011}}The Third Tunceli Operation was carried out between August 10–17, 1938. Sweep operations Sweep operations that started on September 6, were continued for 17 days.Faik Bulut, ibid, p. 277. {{in lang|tr}} Aerial operations Turkish planes flew numerous sorties against the rebels during the rebellion. Among the pilots was Kemal Atatürk's adopted daughter, Sabiha Gökçen, the first female fighter pilot. A report of the General Staff mentioned the "serious damage" that had been caused by her 50 kg bomb, upon a group of fleeing bandits.ReÅŸat Hallı, Türkiye Cumhuriyetinde Ayaklanmalar (1924–1938), T. C. Genelkurmay Baskanlığı Harp Tarihi Dairesi, 1972, p. 382. {{in lang|tr}}Muhsin Batur, engaged in operations for about two months over Dersim, stated in his memoirs that he wanted to avoid talking about this part of his life.Muhsin Batur, Anılar, Görüşler, Üç Dönemin Perde Arsası, Milliyet Yayınları, 1985, p. 25. {{in lang|tr}}{{better source needed|date=March 2023}} Kurdish leader Nuri Dersimi claimed that the Turkish air force bombed the district with poisonous gas in 1938.Martin van Bruinessen, Kurdish ethno-nationalism versus nation-building states: collected articles, Isis Press, 2000, {{ISBN|978-975-428-177-4}}, p. 116. Massacres According to an official report of the Fourth General Inspectorate, 13,160 civilians were killed by the Turkish Army and 11,818 people were taken into exile, depopulating the province."Resmi raporlarda Dersim katliamı: 13 bin kiÅŸi öldürüldü", Radikal, November 19, 2009. {{in lang|tr}} According to a claim by Nuri Dersimi, many tribesmen were shot dead after surrendering, and women and children were locked into haysheds which were then set on fire.WEB,weblink The Suppression of the Dersim Rebellion in Turkey (1937–38) Page 4, 2013-12-24,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130521155242weblink">weblink 2013-05-21, dead, Christian Gerlach reports that 30,000 Kurds were massacred by the Turkish Army after the rebellion.BOOK, Gerlach, Christian, Christian Gerlach, The Extermination of the European Jews, 2016, Cambridge University Press, 978-0-521-88078-7, en, But by far the bloodiest violence targeted Kurds during the Dersim uprising of 1937–38, when Turkish troops massacred about 30,000 people., 401, Hüseyin Aygün, a jurist author, wrote in his book Dersim 1938 and Obligatory Settlement: "The rebellion was clearly caused by provocation. It caused the most violent tortures that were ever seen in a rebellion in the Republican years. Those who didn't take part in the rebellion, and the families of the rebels, were also tortured."Hüseyin Aygün, Dersim 1938 ve zorunlu iskân: telgraflar, dilekçeler, mektuplar, Dipnot Yayınları, 2009, {{ISBN|978-975-9051-75-4}}, p. .{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}} Numbers killed The contemporary British estimate of the number of deaths was 40,000, although McDowall writes that this could be exaggerated. It has been suggested that the total number of deaths may be 7,594, over 10,000.Hans-Lukas Kieser: Some Remarks on Alevi Responses to the Missionaries in Eastern Anatolia (19th–20th cc.). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012053751weblink |date=12 October 2017 }} In: Altruism and Imperialism. The Western Religious and Cultural Missionary Enterprise in the Middle East. Middle East Institute Conference: Bellagio Italien, August 2000 In 2011, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan acknowledged that 13,806 citizens had been murdered and 11,683 individuals displaced—these figures were based on contemporary Turkish documents.BOOK, YeÄŸen, Mesut, Collective and State Violence in Turkey: The Construction of a National Identity from Empire to Nation-State, 2020, Berghahn Books, 978-1-78920-451-3, 303–346 [310],weblink en, State Violence in ‘Kurdistan’, 10.1515/9781789204513-012, Turkish Kurdish anthropologist DilÅŸa Deniz estimates the number of deaths to be between 46.000 to 63.000.JOURNAL, Deniz, DilÅŸa, 2020-09-04, Re-assessing the Genocide of Kurdish Alevis in Dersim, 1937-38,weblink Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal, 14, 2, 10.5038/1911-9933.14.2.1728, 7 May 2024, 1911-0359, Kaynak, Genelkurmay Belgeleri II, 203, 205.Jandarma Ãœst Komutanligi JUK Report, 13-17.Hüseyin Aygün, Dersim 38 Resmiyet ve Hakikat (Ankara: Dipnot, 2010), 99.YeÅŸiltuna, Devletin Dersim ArÅŸivi, 300-301.WEB, 2014-08-28, 1938 Dersim: Bir belge de Nazımiye Nüfus Müdürlüğü'nden!,weblink 2024-05-06, Baskın Oran, tr-TR, Aslan, Genel Nüfus Sayımı Verilerine, 404.UluÄŸ, Derebeyi ve Dersim, 64; AÄŸar, Tunceli-Dersim CoÄŸrafyası, 18. Historian Hans-Lukas Kieser writes that 40,000 is implausibly high.JOURNAL, Kieser, Hans-Lukas, Hans-Lukas Kieser, Dersim Massacre, 1937-1938, Sciences Po, 19 January 2016,weblink 11 May 2024, en, Historian Annika Törne estimates 32,000 to 70,000 dead as a result of massacresBOOK, Törne, Annika,weblink Dersim – Geographie der Erinnerungen: Eine Untersuchung von Narrativen über Verfolgung und Gewalt, 2019-11-05, De Gruyter, 978-3-11-063021-3, 10.1515/9783110630213, , citing as sources among others Nicole Watts (Relocating Dersim: Turkish State-Building and Kurdish Resistance, 1931–1938, in: New Perspectives on Turkey 23 (2000), S. 5–30.) Deportations {{Further|Deportations of Kurds}}Around 3,000 people were forcibly deported from Dersim. On the 4th of May 1938 a Turkish Cabinet decision resolved that Turkish military forces which had previously been massed in the area would attack Nazimiye, Keçigezek Sin and Karaoglan. "This time all the people in the area will be collected and deported out of the area and this collection operation will attack the villages without warning and collect the people. To do this, we will collect the people as well as the arms they have. At the moment, we are ready to deport 2,000 people." In the same decision ordering to respond to any resistance by rendering those "incapable of movement on the spot and until the end", Ä°smail BeÅŸikçi concludes this meant to kill them, along with orders to destroy their homes and deporting those remaining.BOOK, White, Paul J.,weblink Primitive Rebels Or Revolutionary Modernizers: The Kurdish Nationalist Movement in Turkey, October 2000, Zed Books, 978-1-85649-822-7, 82, en, Ethnocide or genocide The policy of population resettlement under the 1934 Law on Resettlement was a key component of the Turkification process that began to be implemented first with the Armenian genocide in 1915 as Turkey transitioned from a pluralistic, multi-ethnic society to a "unidimensional Turkish nation-state". Ä°smail BeÅŸikçi has argued that the Turkish government actions in Dersim was genocide.BOOK, Ä°smail, BeÅŸikçi, Tunceli Kanunu (1935) ve Dersim jenosidi, 2013, Ä°smail BeÅŸikçi Vakfı Yayınları, 9786058693395, Martin van Bruinessen has argued that the actions of the government were not genocide, under international law, because they were not aimed at the extermination of a people, but at resettlement and suppression.Martin van Bruinessen: Genocide in Kurdistan? 1994, S. 141–170. Van Bruinessen has instead talked of an ethnocide directed against the local language and identity.The Suppression of the Dersim Rebellion in Turkey (1937–38) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160108232606weblink |date=2016-01-08 }} Excerpts from: Martin van Bruinessen, "Genocide in Kurdistan? The suppression of the Dersim rebellion in Turkey (1937–38) and the chemical war against the Iraqi Kurds (1988)", in: George J. Andreopoulos (ed), Conceptual and historical dimensions of genocide. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994, pp. 141–170. According to Van Bruinessen, the 1934 law created "the legal framework for a policy of ethnocide." Dersim was one of the first territories where this policy was applied.George J Andreopoulos, Genocide, page 11.Historian Annika Thörne, in her study of historical memory in Dersim, concludes that the 1938 massacres and forced assimilation amounts to genocide.{{Citation |last=Törne |first=Annika |title=Dersim – Geographie der Erinnerungen: Eine Untersuchung von Narrativen über Verfolgung und Gewalt |date=2019-11-05 |work=Dersim – Geographie der Erinnerungen |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110630213/html |access-date=2024-05-11 |publisher=De Gruyter |language=de |doi=10.1515/9783110630213 |isbn=978-3-11-063021-3|p=81}} According to Dilsa Deniz, convincing evidence points towards a genocide.JOURNAL, Deniz, DilÅŸa, 2020-09-04, Re-assessing the Genocide of Kurdish Alevis in Dersim, 1937-38,weblink Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal, 14, 2, 10.5038/1911-9933.14.2.1728, 7 May 2024, 1911-0359, In March 2011, a Turkish court ruled that the actions of the Turkish government in Dersim could not be considered genocide according to the law because they were not directed systematically against an ethnic group.NEWS, Saymaz, Ismail, Turkish prosecutor refuses to hear Dersim 'genocide' claim,weblink 24 November 2011, Hürriyet Daily News, 14 March 2011, Aftermath Early Turkish interpretation Turkish state's reaction to the uprising was publicly justified as "disciplining and punishment" (tedip ve tenkil). It contributed to a Kemalist perception of Dersim and its populace, which characterises the province as unruly and defends violent state intervention. This narrative is encountered in NaÅŸit Hakkı UluÄŸ's book The Feudal Lord and Dersim (Derebeyi ve Dersim), which depicts Dersim as a security threat to the Turkish Republic.BOOK, Collective and State Violence in Turkey: Construction of a National Identity from Empire to Nation-State, Berghahn Books, Astourian, Stephan, Physical and Epistemic Violence against Alevis in Modern Turkey, Kévorkian, Raymond, It was not until 2009 that the massacre was publicly acknowledged, and in recent years, oral history has been used as a method to study anti-civilian violence excluded from the official history of the event.JOURNAL, Orhan, Gozde, 2020, Remembering a Massacre: How Did the Rise of Oral History as a Methodology Improve Dersim Studies?, WrocÅ‚awski Rocznik Historii Mówionej, 10.26774/wrhm.249, 226660222, free, Turkish government apology On November 23, 2011, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan apologized "on behalf of the state" over the killing of over 13,000 people during the rebellion.WEB, Selcan Hacaoglu,weblink Turkish PM apologizes over 1930s killings of Kurds, News.yahoo.com, 2011-11-23, 2013-12-24, His remarks were widely commented on both inside and outside Turkey.Arin, Kubilay Yado, Turkey and the Kurds – From War to Reconciliation? UC Berkeley Center for Right Wing Studies Working Paper Series, March 26, 2015weblink His comments were pointedly directed at opposition leader Kemal KılıçdaroÄŸlu (who in fact is from Tunceli). Erdogan reminded his audience that KılıçdaroÄŸlu's party, the CHP, had been in power at the time of the massacre, then the only political party in Turkey. He described the massacre as "one of the most tragic events of our near history" saying that, whilst some sought to justify it as a legitimate response to events on the ground, it was in reality "an operation which was planned step by step".NEWS, Turkey apologises for 1930s killing of thousands of Kurds,weblink 24 November 2011, The Telegraph, 24 November 2011, See also Ararat rebellion Koçgiri rebellion Sheikh Said rebellion Kurdish Alevism Turkish war crimes References {{Reflist|30em}} Further reading JOURNAL, Ashly, Jaclynn, The Massacre in Dersim Still Haunts Kurds in Turkey, Jacobin, 12 January 2021,weblink 9 February 2021, Boztas, Özgür Inan. "Did a Genocide Take Place in the Dersim Region of Turkey in 1938?." Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (2015): 1–20. Sources JOURNAL, Ayata, Bilgin, Hakyemez, Serra, 2013, The AKP's engagement with Turkey's past crimes: an analysis of PM ErdoÄŸan's "Dersim apology", Dialectical Anthropology, en, 37, 1, 131–143, 10.1007/s10624-013-9304-3, 1573-0786, 144503079, JOURNAL, Deniz, DilÅŸa, 2020, Re-assessing the Genocide of Kurdish Alevis in Dersim, 1937-38,weblink Genocide Studies and Prevention, 14, 2, 20–43, 10.5038/1911-9933.14.2.1728, 1911-0359, free, JOURNAL, Ilengiz, Çiçek, 2019, Erecting a Statue in the Land of the Fallen: Gendered Dynamics of the Making of Tunceli and Commemorating Seyyid Rıza in Dersim, L'Homme, 30, 2, 75–92, 10.14220/lhom.2019.30.2.75, 213908434, JOURNAL, Erbal, Ayda, 2015, The Armenian Genocide, AKA the Elephant in the Room,weblink International Journal of Middle East Studies, 47, 4, 783–790, 10.1017/S0020743815000987, 0020-7438, 43998041, 162834123, External links {{Commons category|Dersim rebellion}} Dersim Massacre, 1937-1938, Hans-Lukas Kieser {{Middle East conflicts}}{{Authority control}}