Diary of a Turkish soldier sheds light on Dersim genocide’s obscured history

Excerpt

A Turkish historian recently discovered the diary of a Turkish soldier who took part in the 1937-38 genocide in the Kurdish-majority province of Dersim, eastern Turkey.

Quotes

• This document is one of the most precise and important sources, full of information with plenty of details concerning the massacre,

  — Zainab Turkilmaz

Highlights

• Soldier Akim was a native of the northern Turkish coastal city of Samsun. He appears to have written in his diary on a daily basis while his unit moved from Dersim province village to village, town to town, massacring Kurds and Armenians.

Sources