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ISTANBUL: General Staff sends all documents on 1938 Dersim massacre

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  • ISTANBUL: General Staff sends all documents on 1938 Dersim massacre

    Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
    June 30 2013


    General Staff sends all documents on 1938 Dersim massacre to Parliament


    The General Staff has sent all the documents that it has concerning
    the violent massacre against Alevi rebels in the eastern province of
    Tunceli, formerly known as Dersim, to a parliamentary commission, the
    head of the commission said.

    Head of Parliament's Petition Commission Mehmet DaniÅ?, also Çanakkale
    deputy of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), told Anadolu
    Agency on June 30 that the commission most recently received 5,000
    pages of documents from the General Staff, which increased the total
    number of pages of documents about the issue handed over by the
    General Staff to 46,000.

    Including the ones from the General Staff, the commission has so far
    received almost 10,000 pages of documents concerning the Dersim
    rebellion that occurred between 1936 and 1939 and resulted in the
    death of 13,800 people.

    The documents from the General Staff include maps, private letters,
    official dispatches, intelligence reports, assessments, daily reports,
    troop transfers, lists of fugitives, arms collected in Dersim,
    propaganda activities, public order incidents in the related region,
    security precautions and separatism and espionage activities.

    Information about the capture of Seyit Rıza, the leader of the
    uprising in Dersim and chief of an Alevi-Zaza tribe in the region, as
    well as visits of then-prime minister Ä°smet Ä°nönü and then-chief of
    general staff Fevzi Çakmak to the region are also cases within the
    documents.

    Documents which were handed over by the General Staff to the
    Parliament in 2012 revealed that the Turkish army launched a black
    propaganda campaign against Seyit Rıza. Among other things, the
    campaign claimed that he was uncircumcised, and also tried to dissuade
    support from the rebel leader by convincing the public that he was
    originally Armenian.

    `Prisoners who were sent to western provinces will be executed and the
    uncircumcised boys will be given Armenian names and banished to
    Christian countries. Unmarried girls of Tunceli will be married to
    Turkish men and Turkish girls will be married to the men of Tunceli.
    People of Tunceli will be replaced in the following spring month. The
    fact that hanged Seyit Rıza was uncircumcised would look unpleasant in
    the eyes of the public and that has become an inspiration and
    propaganda material for opportunists...' read one of the documents
    issued on Dec. 30, 1937.

    Another document issued on Sep 11, 1937, said Rıza had surrendered
    with his two abettors to the military officials. The document said
    Rıza was exhausted the day he surrendered and demanded to testify the
    following day.
    June/30/2013

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