Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Nov 23 2011

PM Erdoðan apologizes over Dersim massacre on behalf of Turkish state

23 November 2011, Wednesday / YONCA POYRAZ DOÐAN, ÝSTANBUL

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan holds a book by Turkish writer
Necip Fazýl Kýsakürek as mentions details of 1937 massacre in Dersim
on Nov. 23. (Photo: AA)

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan has apologized for a 1937 massacre
in the predominantly Alevi region of Dersim on behalf of the Turkish
state, but said the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP),
which was the only political party at the time, is the actual culprit
and called on the party’s current leader to apologize for the incident
on behalf of the CHP.

“Is it me who should apologize or you [CHP leader Kemal Kýlýçdaroðlu]?
If there is an apology on behalf of the state and if there is such an
opportunity, I can do it and I am apologizing. But if there is someone
who should apologize on behalf of the CHP, it is you, as you are from
Dersim. You were saying you felt honored to be from Dersim. Now, save
your honor,” Erdoðan said during a party meeting on Wednesday.

It was the first official apology from the Turkish government over the
killing of thousands of people in the southeastern town of Dersim —
now known as Tunceli as a result of a name change in 1936 — between
1936 and 1939.

Erdoðan was responding to Kýlýçdaroðlu’s demands that Turkey must face
its past. Kýlýçdaroðlu’s family is from Tunceli. The notorious
massacre took place in 1937 in Dersim, which was historically a
semi-autonomous region, as a brutal response to rebellious events. The
alleged rebellion was led by Seyyid Rýza, the chief of a Zaza tribe in
the region. The Turkish government at the time, led by former CHP
leader Ýsmet Ýnönü, responded with air strikes and other violent
methods of suppression, killing thousands of people.

“Dersim is among the most tragic event in recent history. It is a
disaster that should now be questioned with courage. The party that
should confront this incident is not the ruling Justice and
Development Party [AK Party]. It is the CHP, which is behind this
bloody disaster, who should face this incident and its chairman from
Tunceli,” Erdoðan said, targeting Kýlýçdaroðlu. The two politicians
recently clashed over the long-controversial massacre.

In the widening debate, Erdoðan said at his party’s group meeting in
Parliament on Tuesday that he planned to release a number of state
documents about the incident on Wednesday. He then read excerpts from
archive documents related to the massacre on Wednesday, saying
thousands of people, including women and children, were killed during
the Dersim operation and that the CHP was the party of the
single-party government of the time.

Referring to a document dated 1939, Erdoðan said a total of 13,806
people were killed in operations carried out against the people of
Dersim between 1936 and 1939. He said the document bears the signature
of then-Interior Minister Faik Öztrak. Another document Erdoðan
revealed related to the Dersim events was a Cabinet decree dated Dec.
23, 1938, which said 11,683 people were deported from Dersim and that
2,000 more were to be deported.

“All of these documents have the signatures of Ýsmet Ýnönü,” Erdoðan
said, criticizing the current CHP leader for organizing commemoration
ceremonies for Ýnönü but failing to confront the party’s past.

Contacted by Today’s Zaman, Chairman of the Confrontation with the
Past Association Cafer Solgun said that the prime minister’s apology
is of great value. “An apology coming from the prime minister of
Turkey is historical. It was a historical speech. I am excited as a
person from Dersim,” he said.

Solgun’s parents were about six or seven years old at the time of the
1937 and 1938 killings in Dersim. In his book, “Alevilerin Kemalizmle
Ýmtihaný” (Alevis’ Test with Kemalism), he questions the relationship
between Alevis and Kemalism.

“If Kýlýçdaroðlu were not the head of the CHP, his feelings would be
similar to mine [after the speech of the prime minister]. But the CHP
has a hard time facing the past,” he said.

Cemal Taþ, a writer who has been working on collecting oral history in
Dersim for the last 20 years, said that it was necessary to call on
the CHP to issue an apology as the prime minister did in Wednesday’s
speech.

“It was important for us from Dersim to hear that the prime minister
does not share the CHP’s views regarding this issue. This was
important for us to hear and heals our wounds,” he said.

Regarding what needs to be done after that, Taþ said the people of
Dersim need to know where the bodies of their sisters, mothers,
brothers and fathers are. In addition, he said that they need to be
assured of their rights as citizens of Turkey, where work is under way
for a new constitution.

According to Þükrü Aslan, a sociologist at Ýstanbul’s Mimar Sinan
University and a writer from Dersim, Erdoðan’s words were important.
“It was a first in Turkey for a prime minister to call what happened
in Dersim a massacre, and say that it was not a rebellion and was
planned well in advance,” he said. “This forces other parties, like
the CHP and the MHP [Nationalist Movement Party], to develop new
polices about it.” However, he said that the documents that Erdoðan
mentioned had previously been in the Turkish press. “What needs to be
done is to have the archives of the General Staff opened. This is what
the people of Dersim demand,” he stated.

Aslan also said that it would be better if the prime minister had made
associations between some people he mentioned, like Celal Bayar, who
was the prime minister at the time, and the conservative right.
“Because the prime minister associated many people responsible for the
Dersim massacre, like Ali Çetinkaya, Ýsmet Ýnönü and Þükrü Kaya, with
the CHP, it would have been better if he mentioned that some people
are associated with the conservative right in Turkey,” he said.

Hüseyin Aygün, a writer and researcher who is also from Dersim, said
that, next to the “double-faced” politics of the CHP, the prime
minister’s words were significant. “The world has a right to know what
happened in Dersim,” he said.

CHP Diyarbakýr branch responds to PM’s call, apologizes for Dersim
In an immediate response to Erdoðan’s call to apologize for the
killing of thousands of people in Dersim, the CHP’s Diyarbakýr branch
has announced that they apologize to the people of Dersim.

CHP Diyarbakýr provincial branch Chairman Muzaffer Deðer said hours
after Erdoðan’s call that the prime minister did what the CHP should
have done already by apologizing for the Dersim massacre on behalf of
the Turkish state. He said the CHP administration should also confront
its past and apologize.

However, CHP Deputy Chairman Gürsel Tekin reacted to Erdoðan’s words
in a written statement that read: “I congratulate the prime minister.
He put dynamite under the basis of unity in our nation and country
with his language, style and explanation. He has been successful in
creating animosity among the people. We learned our history, thanks to
him. What else is left to say? What is the next step for the prime
minister? What is the end goal of his campaign?”

‘Sabiha Gökçen Airport should be renamed Seyyid Rýza’
Pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Muþ deputy Sýrrý Sakýk has
demanded that the name of the Sabiha Gökçen Airport be changed to
Seyyid Rýza, who allegedly led a rebellion in Dersim as the chief of a
Zaza tribe in the region.

Sakýk said in Parliament on Tuesday evening that it was inappropriate
to name the airport Sabiha Gökçen, who was Atatürk’s adopted daughter
and served as a pilot during the bombing of Dersim. “If you want to
make peace with Alevis and Kurds, change that name. Our suggestion is
to rename the airport’s name to Seyyid Rýza. When you say Sabiha
Gökçen, we remember bombs, massacres and genocide,” he said.

“Whatever Hitler means for Jewish people, we have similar feelings
toward the people responsible for those times,” Sakýk noted.

MHP Manisa deputy Erkan Akçay voiced opposition to Sakýk’s suggestion,
saying that Gökçen was a “hero,” and adding: “People who have
animosity toward Sabiha Gökçen hold animosity toward those who
established the republic. Those who ask for the name change regarding
Gökçen will ask to change the name of Turkey tomorrow.”