Mehmet
02-04-2014, 07:42 PM
This comes for the non-Turk Stockholm syndrome bastard Kemalist:
The Suppression of the Dersim Rebellion in Turkey (1937-38)
Dersim is an inaccessible district of high, snowcapped mountains, narrow valleys,
and deep ravines in central Eastern Turkey. It was inhabited by a large number of
small tribes, eking out a marginal existence by animal husbandry, horticulture, and
gathering forest products. Their total numbers were, by the mid-1930s, estimated at
65,000 to 70,000. Dersim was a culturally distinct part of Kurdistan, partly due to
ecological-geographical factors, partly to a combination of linguistic and religious
peculiarities. Some of the tribes spoke Kurdish proper, but most spoke another, related
language known as Zaza. All adhered to the heterodox Alevi sect, which separated
them socially from the Sunni Kurds living to the east and south (among whom there
were both Zaza and Kurdish speakers). Although there are Alevis in many other parts
of Turkey, those of Dersim constitute a distinct group, with different beliefs and
practices.
In 1936 Dersim was placed under military government, with the express aim of pacifying
and "civilizing" it. The tribes' response to the modernization brought by the state, consisting of
roads, bridges,and police posts, was ambiguous. Some chieftains sought accommodation with the
military authorities, others resented this interference in their former independence. By
early 1937, the authorities believed, or had been led to believe, that a major rebellion
was at hand, a show of resistance against the pacification program, instigated by
nationalists. The person said to be the chief conspirator was a religious leader, Seyyit
Riza. Five tribes (out of around one hundred) were said to be involved in the
conspiracy.
The military campaign against Dersim was mounted in response to a relatively
minor incident, and it would seem that the army had been waiting for a direct reason
to punish the tribes. One day in March 1937, a strategic wooden bridge was burned
down and telephone lines cut. Seyyit Riza and the tribes associated with him were
suspected. The army may have believed this to be the beginning of the expected
rebellion. One Turkish source mentions that there was around the same time another
minor incident elsewhere in Kurdistan and suggests coordination by Kurdish
nationalists
When the Turkish troops began hunting down the rebellious tribes, the men gave
battle, while the women and children hid in deep caves. "Thousands of these women
and children perished," Dersimi writes, "because the army bricked up the entrances of
the caves. These caves are marked with numbers on the military maps of the area. 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. A large
proportion of the women and girls of the Kureyshan and Bakhtiyar [two rebel tribes]
threw themselves from high cliffs into the Munzur and Parchik ravines, in order not to
fall into the Turks' hands."
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. The body count in these reports (in some
engagements a seemingly exact number like 76, in others "the entire band of Haydaran
tribesmen and part of the Demenan") adds up to something between three and seven
thousand, while tens of villages are reported destroyed. In seventeen days of the 1938
offensive alone, 7,954 persons were reported killed or caught alive.
http://www.hum.uu.nl/medewerkers/m.vanbruinessen/publications/Dersim_rebellion.pdf
The Suppression of the Dersim Rebellion in Turkey (1937-38)
Dersim is an inaccessible district of high, snowcapped mountains, narrow valleys,
and deep ravines in central Eastern Turkey. It was inhabited by a large number of
small tribes, eking out a marginal existence by animal husbandry, horticulture, and
gathering forest products. Their total numbers were, by the mid-1930s, estimated at
65,000 to 70,000. Dersim was a culturally distinct part of Kurdistan, partly due to
ecological-geographical factors, partly to a combination of linguistic and religious
peculiarities. Some of the tribes spoke Kurdish proper, but most spoke another, related
language known as Zaza. All adhered to the heterodox Alevi sect, which separated
them socially from the Sunni Kurds living to the east and south (among whom there
were both Zaza and Kurdish speakers). Although there are Alevis in many other parts
of Turkey, those of Dersim constitute a distinct group, with different beliefs and
practices.
In 1936 Dersim was placed under military government, with the express aim of pacifying
and "civilizing" it. The tribes' response to the modernization brought by the state, consisting of
roads, bridges,and police posts, was ambiguous. Some chieftains sought accommodation with the
military authorities, others resented this interference in their former independence. By
early 1937, the authorities believed, or had been led to believe, that a major rebellion
was at hand, a show of resistance against the pacification program, instigated by
nationalists. The person said to be the chief conspirator was a religious leader, Seyyit
Riza. Five tribes (out of around one hundred) were said to be involved in the
conspiracy.
The military campaign against Dersim was mounted in response to a relatively
minor incident, and it would seem that the army had been waiting for a direct reason
to punish the tribes. One day in March 1937, a strategic wooden bridge was burned
down and telephone lines cut. Seyyit Riza and the tribes associated with him were
suspected. The army may have believed this to be the beginning of the expected
rebellion. One Turkish source mentions that there was around the same time another
minor incident elsewhere in Kurdistan and suggests coordination by Kurdish
nationalists
When the Turkish troops began hunting down the rebellious tribes, the men gave
battle, while the women and children hid in deep caves. "Thousands of these women
and children perished," Dersimi writes, "because the army bricked up the entrances of
the caves. These caves are marked with numbers on the military maps of the area. 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. A large
proportion of the women and girls of the Kureyshan and Bakhtiyar [two rebel tribes]
threw themselves from high cliffs into the Munzur and Parchik ravines, in order not to
fall into the Turks' hands."
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. The body count in these reports (in some
engagements a seemingly exact number like 76, in others "the entire band of Haydaran
tribesmen and part of the Demenan") adds up to something between three and seven
thousand, while tens of villages are reported destroyed. In seventeen days of the 1938
offensive alone, 7,954 persons were reported killed or caught alive.
http://www.hum.uu.nl/medewerkers/m.vanbruinessen/publications/Dersim_rebellion.pdf