Dersim rebellion

The Dersim rebellion was an Kurdish    uprising against the Turkish government in the Dersim region of eastern Turkey, which includes parts of Tunceli Province, Elazığ Province, and Bingöl Province. The rebellion was led by Seyid Riza, an Alevi chieftain of the Yukarı Abbas Uşağı tribe.

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).

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 refused to pay taxes.

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.

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).

"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 İdaresi Hakkında Kanun), no. 2884 of 25 December 1935 on January 4, 1936.

Fourth General Inspectorate
In order to consolidate its authority in the process of Turkification of religious and ethnic minorities, the Turkish Grand National Assembly passed the law, numbered 1164 and dated June 25, 1927. Following the First Inspectorate-General (January 1, 1928, Diyarbakır),

[the Thrace pogroms], the Second Inspectorate-General (February 19, 1934, Edirne) and the Third Inspectorate-General (August 25, 1935, Erzurum), the Fourth General Inspectorate (Dördüncü Umumi Müffetişlik) was established on June 6, 1936, in the traditional Dersim region, which includes Tunceli Province, Elazığ Province and Bingöl Province.

On 1 November 1936, during a speech in the parliament Atatürk acknowledged the situation in Dersim as Turkey's most important internal problem. Firstly, military stations were built in the strategical zones. Then the Inspector of the Fourth General Inspectorate, Lieutenant General Abdullah Alpdoğan was given the authority to sign court orders, providing security, to exile people that lived in the city when necessary.

The Rebellion


After the "Tunceli" Law, the Turkish government built military observation posts　in the centers of districts such as Kahmut, Sin, Karaoğlan, Amutka, Danzik, and Haydaran.

Meeting at Halbori cells
The chieftain of Yukarı, Abbas Uşağı Seyit Riza, sent his followers to the Haydaran, Demenan, Yusufan, and Kureyşan tribes to make an alliance.

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 3th 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
According to Osman Pamukoğlu, a general in Turkish Army in the 1990s, Atatürk had given the operational order himself.

First Tunceli Operation
On September 10–12, 1937, Seyit Rıza came to the government building of the Erzincan Province for peace talks and was arrested. 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, 1937 The victims were:


 * 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 (of the Demenan tribe, Cebrail Ağa's son)
 * Hasan (a Kureyşan 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.

Second Tunceli Operation
The prime minister, Celal Bayar (in office: October 25, 1937–January 25, 1939) had agreed to an attack on the Dersim rebels. The operation started on January 2, 1938 and finished on August 7, 1938.

Third Tunceli Operation
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.

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 in military history. A report of the General Staff mentioned the "serious damage" that had been caused by her 50 kg bomb, upon a group of 50 fleeing bandits.

Muhsin Batur, engaged in operations for about two months over Dersim, but he stated in his memoirs that he wanted to avoid explaining this part of his life. Nuri Dersimi claimed that the Turkish air force bombed the district with poisonous gas in 1938.

Consequences
According to an official report of the Fourth General Ispectorate, 13,160 civilians were killed by the Turkish Army and 11,818 people were taken into exile, depopulating the province. According to the Dersimi, many tribesmen were shot dead after surrendering, and women and children were locked into haysheds which were then set on fire. According to McDowall, 40,000 people were killed. According to Kurdish Diaspora sources, over 70,000 people were killed.

A key component of the Turkification process was the policy of massive population resettlement - a result of the 1934 law on resettlement. This policy targeted the region of Dersim as one of its first test cases, and it had disastrous consequences for the local population.

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 that didn't take place in the rebellion and the families of the rebels were also tortured."

Recent developments
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. His remarks were widely commented on both inside and outside Turkey.

Links

 * Hans-Lukas Kieser, Dersim Massacre, 1937-1938

Massacre de Dersim Dersim İsyanı