The Dersim massacre – then and now (part II): What is its legacy?

Excerpt

The city of Dersim plays an important role in the Kurdish collective memory. Dersim, now the eastern Turkish province of Tunceli, was the scene of mass murders between 1937-38 by the Turkish army in which between 20,000 and 30,000 Kurds died.

The massacres are commemorated on November 15 each year. On that day in 1937, the Kurdish leader Seyit Rıza and some of his followers, who had opposed the Turkish government, were hanged.

In a two-part series, a number of experts provide insights into key questions about the massacres, as more information and evidence has come to light in recent years.

Quotes

Highlights

• Dutch-Kurdish historian and genocide researcher Uğur Ümit Üngör said that he read in the Turkish archives that Zyklon B. had been ordered from Nazi Germany, the same gas with which the Jews were gassed in Auschwitz in World War Two.

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