- Dersim Rebellion
-
Dersim Rebellion of 1937/1938 
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and Sabiha Gökçen (November 17, 1937, in front of the Pertek People's House)Date 20 March 1937 - November 1937,
2 January 1938 - December 1938Location Dersim region Result Decisive Turkish victory. Revolt suppressed. Turkish control of Dersim region. Belligerents 
Republic of TurkeyDersim tribes Commanders and leaders Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
İsmet İnönü
Kâzım Orbay
Abdullah Alpdoğan
Galip Deniz
Kemal Ergüden
İsmail Hakkı Tekçe
Şemsi Erkuş
Rêber Qop
Zeynel TopSeyid Riza (POW) 
Kamer Aga (Yusufan)
Cebrail Aga (Demenan)
Kamer Aga (Haydaran)
Alîşêr †
Zarîfe †Strength 50,000[1] 3,000[2] Casualties and losses unknown 10.000 killed[3]or 13,160 civilians[4]-70,000 people[5] killed
11,818 forced migration[4]Koçgiri Rebellion ¹ – Sheikh Said rebellion – Ararat rebellion – Dersim rebellion ² – PKK Rebellion · (Serhildan)The Dersim rebellion was an uprising against the Turkish government in the Dersim region of eastern Turkey, which includes Tunceli Province, Elazığ Province, and Bingöl Province.[8] The rebellion was led by Seyid Riza, an Alevi Kurd chieftain of the Yukarı Abbas Uşağı tribe.[9]
Contents
Background
Ottoman period
During the Ottoman period, before the Tanzimat, most of the empire's eastern regions were administrated by the Kurdish feudal system. Authority in these regions was in the hands of feudal lords, tribal chieftains and aghas (dignitaries).[10]
Early republican era
The situation of Dersim in the Ottoman Empire continued in the early years of the Republic of Turkey. Tribes from Dersim objected to losing authority and rejected paying taxes.[11]
Complaints kept coming from the governors. In an Interior Ministry report in 1926, it was considered necessary to use force against the residents of Dersim.[12]
Law on Resettlement
The Turkification process in Turkey began with the Turkish National Assembly passing the 1934 Law on Resettlement ('İskân Kanunu' Law No.2510, 13 June 1934)[13] passed.
"Tunceli" law
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 İdaresi Hakkında Kanun), no. 2884 of 25 December 1935[14] on January 4, 1936.[15]
Fourth General Inspectorate
Main article: Inspectorates-General (Turkey)In order to consolidate the authority in the process of Turkification of religious and ethnic minorities,[16] the Turkish Grand National Assembly got the law numbered 1164 and dated June 25, 1927 passed. After the First Inspectorate-General (January 1, 1928, Diyarbakır),[17]
Thrace pogroms on the Second Inspectorate-General (February 19, 1934, Edirne)[8] and the Third Inspectorate-General (August 25, 1935, Erzurum)[18][19] on June 6. 1936, the Fourth General Inspectorate (Dördüncü Umumi Müffetişlik) was established in historical Dersim region that includes Tunceli Province, Elazığ Province and Bingöl Province.[8]
On 1 November 1936, during a speech in the parliament Atatürk acknowledged the situation in Dersim as Turkey's most important internal problem.[20] Firstly, military stations were built to the strategical zones.[citation needed] Inspector of the 4. General Ispectorate, Lieutenant General Abdullah Alpdoğan had the authority to sign the court orders, providing security, to exile the people that live in the city when needed.[citation needed]
The Rebellion
A 1937 map of Dersim showing the centre province in 1937, Hezat
After "Tunceli" law, the Turkish government built military observation posts in centers of districts such as Kahmut, Sin, Karaoğlan, Amutka, Danzik, Haydaran etc. Some Armenians who have come from Syria assembled at the circle of Alişer of Koçkiri and tried to provoke people with propaganda.[21]
From Uhundu village to Pah bridge
According to Hıdır Göktaş, in March 1937, Turkish troops came to Uhundu village from Tülük village, Mehmet Ali Menteş, a member of Yusufan tribe invited them to his house. Since a young officer attempted to rape Mehmet Ali's young and beautiful wife, Mehmet Ali shot both of them to death to protect namus and wounded two soldiers. After this affair Mehmet Ali and his brothers left village to escape. When they passed Pah Bridge, they removed several wooden board from the bridge to delay the follow-up activities of soldiers. Turkish authority proclaimed that Dersim tribes rebelled and burned a bridge.[22]
Turkish soldiers came to Kamer Aga, chieftain of Yusufan tribe, and want him to deliver Mehmet Ali. A Turkish colonel said to Kamer Aga Deliver suspects, otherwise we will set fire to your village. Kamer Aga responded to a colonel that Mehmet Ali only reacted to officer's attempt to rape his wife and rejected the delivery of Mehmet Ali.[22]
A meeting at Halbori cells
Chieftain of Yukarı Abbas Uşağı Seyit Riza sent his fellow men to Haydaran, Demenan, Yusufan, Kureyşan tribes to make an alliance.[21]
According to Turkish authority, on March 20/21, 1937, 23:00, Demenan and Haydaran tribes broke a bridge connecting Pah and Kahmut at the Harçik Valley. 4. Inspector General ordered to prepare for the action to 2. Mobile Gendarmerie Battalion at Pülümür, 3. Mobile Gendarmerie Battalion at Pülür, 9. Gendarmier Battalion at Mazkirt, Mobile Gendarmerie Regiment at Hozat and sent one infantry company of 9. Mobile Gendarmier Battalion to Pah.[21]
Turkish military operations
According to Osman Pamukoğlu, a general in Turkish Army in the 1990s, Atatürk had given the operation order himself.[23]
1937
First Tunceli Operation
On September 10–12, 1937, Seyit Rıza came to the government building of Erzincan Province for peace talks and was arrested.[24] On the next day, he was transferred to the headquarter of the General Inspectorate at Elazığ and hanged with 6 (or 10) of his fellows on November 15–18, 1937[25]
- Seyit Rıza
- Resik Hüseyin (Seyit Rıza's son, 16 years old)
- Seyit Hüseyin (the chieftain of Kureyşan-Seyhan tribe)
- Fındık Aga (Yusfanlı Kamer Aga's son)
- Hasan Aga (Demenan tribe, Cebrail Ağa's son)
- Hasan (Kureyşan tribesman Ulkiye's son)
- Ali Aga (Mirza Ali's son)
November 17, 1937, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk came to Pertek for taking part in opening ceremony of the Bridge Singeç.[26][27]
1938
See also: Dersim MassacreSecond Tunceli Operation
The prime minister, Celal Bayar (in office: Oct 25, 1937–Jan 25, 1939) had agreed on an attack to Dersim rebels.[28] The operation started on January 2, 1938 and finished on August 7, 1938.
Third Tunceli Operation
Third Tunceli Operation was carried out between August 10–17, 1938.
Sweep operations
Sweep operations that started on September 6, was continued for 17 days.[29]
Aerial operations
Turkish planes flew numerous sorties against rebels during the rebellion. Among the pilots was Kemal Atatürk's adopted daughter, Sabiha Gökçen, the first female fighter pilot in military history.[30] A report of the General Staff mentioned the "serious damage" that had been caused by her 50 kg bomb, upun a group of 50 fleeing bandits.[31]
Muhsin Batur, engaged in operations for about two months over Dersim. But he stated in his reminiscences that he wanted to avoid explaining this part of his life.[32] Nuri Dersimi claims that the Turkish air force bombed the district with poisonous gas in 1938.[33]
The Results
According to official report of 4. General Ispectorate, 13,160 civilians were killed by the Turkish Army and 11.818 people were taken into exile, depopulating the province.[4] According to Dersimi, many tribesmen are shot to death after surrender, women and children were locked into haysheds and fired.[34] According to McDowall, 40.000 people were killed.[1] According to diaspora Kurdish sources, over 70,000 people were killed.[35]
A key component of the Turkification process was the policy of massive population resettlement, a result of the 1934 law on resettlement, a policy targeting the region of Dersim as one of its first test cases with disastrous consequences for the local population.[36]
"The rebellion was clearly caused by provoking. It caused the most violent tortures that were ever seen in a rebellion in the Republic years. Those that didn't take place in the rebellion and also the families of the rebels were also tortured." says a jurist author Hüseyin Aygün in his book titled Dersim 1938 and Obligatory Settlement.[37]
See also
- Koçgiri Rebellion
Sources
- ^ a b David McDowall, A modern history of the Kurds, I.B.Tauris, 2002, ISBN 9781850434160, p. 209.
- ^ Osman Pamukoğlu, Unutulanlar dışında yeni bir şey yok: Hakkari ve Kuzey Irak dağlarındaki askerler, Harmoni Yayıncılık, 2003, ISBN 9756340002, p. 16. (Turkish)
- ^ Turkey's Alevi enigma: a comprehensive overview, Paul J. White,Joost Jongerden, page 198, 2003
- ^ a b c "Resmi raporlarda Dersim katliamı: 13 bin kişi öldürüldü", Radikal, November 19, 2009. (Turkish)
- ^ http://www.pen-kurd.org/almani/haydar/Dersim-PresseerklC3A4rungEnglish.pdf
- ^ Martin van Bruinessen, "Zaza, Alevi and Dersimi as Deliberately Embraced Ethnic Identities" in '"Aslını İnkar Eden Haramzadedir!" The Debate on the Ethnic Identity of The Kurdish Alevis' in Krisztina Kehl-Bodrogi, Barbara Kellner-Heinkele, Anke Otter-Beaujean, Syncretistic Religious Communities in the Near East: Collected Papers of the International Symposium "Alevism in Turkey and Comparable Sycretistic Religious Communities in the Near East in the Past and Present" Berlin, 14-17 April 1995, BRILL, 1997, ISBN 9789004108615, p. 13.
- ^ Martin van Bruinessen, "Zaza, Alevi and Dersimi as Deliberately Embraced Ethnic Identities" in '"Aslını İnkar Eden Haramzadedir!" The Debate on the Ethnic Identity of The Kurdish Alevis', p. 14.
- ^ a b c Birinci Genel Müfettişlik Bölgesi, Güney Doğu, İstanbul, p. 66, 194. (Turkish)
- ^ http://www.massviolence.org/IMG/article_PDF/Dersim-Massacre-1937-1938.pdf
- ^ Faik Bulut, Devletin Gözüyle Türkiye'de Kürt İsyanlar (Kurdish rebellions in Turkey, with the point of view of government), Yön Yayınclık, 1991, 214-215. (Turkish)
- ^ Ziflioğlu, Vercihan (November 18, 2009). "Military documents to shine light on 'Dersim massacre'". Hurriyet Daily News. http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=military-documents-to-shine-a-light-on-the-8220dersim-massacre8221-2009-11-18. Retrieved 2010-09-22.
- ^ Beşikçi, Ismail. (1990) Tunceli Kanunu (1935) ve Dersim Jenosidi (The 1935 law concerning Tunceli and the genocide of Dersim), Bonn, p.29. (Turkish)
- ^ Çağaptay, Soner (2002). "Reconfiguring the Turkish nation in the 1930s". Harvard. http://www.hks.harvard.edu/kokkalis/GSW4/CagaptayPAPER.PDF. Retrieved 2010-08-02.
- ^ New perspectives on Turkey, Issues 1-4, Simon's Rock of Bard College, 1999 p. 15.
- ^ Paul J. White, Primitive rebels or revolutionary modernizers?: the Kurdish national movement in Turkey, Zed Books, 2000, ISBN 9781856498227, p. 80.
- ^ Cemil Koçak, Umumi müfettişlikler (1927-1952), İletişim Yayınları, 2003, ISBN 9789750501296, p. 144.
- ^ Birinci Genel Müfettişlik Bölgesi, p. 66.
- ^ Cumhuriyet, August 26, 1935.
- ^ Erdal Aydoğan, "Üçüncü Umumi Müffetişliği'nin Kurulması ve III. Umumî Müffetiş Tahsin Uzer'in Bazı Önemli Faaliyetleri", Atatürk Yolu, Ankara Üniversitesi Türk İnklâp Tarihi Enstitüsü, Vol. 33-34, pp. 1-14.
- ^ Hasretyan, M. A. (1995) Türkiye'de Kürt Sorunu (1918-1940), Berlin, Wêşanên, ënstîtuya Kurdî: I., p. 262. (Turkish)
- ^ a b c Faik Bulut, ibid, p. 221. (Turkish)
- ^ a b Ahmet Kahraman, Kürt İsyanları: Tedip ve Tenkil, Evrensel Basım Yayın, 2003, ISBN 9756525487, pp. 256-259. (Turkish)
- ^ "Pamukoğlu: Dersim'in emrini Atatürk verdi", Hürriyet, August 19, 2010. (Turkish)
- ^ Ahmet Kahraman, pp. 286-287. (Turkish)
- ^ Ahmet Kahraman, pp. 292-293. (Turkish)
- ^ Cumhuriyet, November 18, 1937, 17 Kasım 1937: Atatürk'ün Diyarbakır'dan Elâzığ'a gelişi, Tunceli'nin Pertek kazasına geçerek Murat Nehri üzerinde Singeç Köprüsü'nü hizmete açışı. (Turkish)
- ^ "Atatürk Pertek'te", The government of Pertek District. (Turkish)
- ^ "1937-1938’de Dersim’de neler oldu?", Taraf, November 16, 2008. (Turkish)
- ^ Faik Bulut, ibid, p. 277. (Turkish)
- ^ Sabiha Gökçen's biography, USAF Air Command and Staff College
- ^ Reşat Hallı, Türkiye Cumhuriyetinde Ayaklanmalar (1924–1938), T. C. Genelkurmay Baskanlığı Harp Tarihi Dairesi, 1972, p. 382. (Turkish)
- ^ Muhsin Batur, Anılar, Görüşler, Üç Dönemin Perde Arsası, Milliyet Yayınları, 1985, p. 25. (Turkish)
- ^ Martin van Bruinessen, Kurdish ethno-nationalism versus nation-building states: collected articles, Isis Press, 2000, ISBN 9789754281774, p. 116.
- ^ The Suppression of the Dersim Rebellion in Turkey (1937-38) Page 4
- ^ http://www.pen-kurd.org/almani/haydar/Dersim-PresseerklC3A4rungEnglish.pdf
- ^ George J Andreopoulos, Genocide, page 11.
- ^ Hüseyin Aygün, Dersim 1938 ve zorunlu iskân: telgraflar, dilekçeler, mektuplar, Dipnot Yayınları, 2009, ISBN 9789759051754, p.[citation needed]. (Turkish)
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