Re-assessing the Genocide of Kurdish Alevis in Dersim, 1937-38

Re-assessing the Genocide of Kurdish Alevis in Dersim, 1937-38

Dilşa Deniz examines the century-long denial of the killings and forced deportations carried out by the Turkish state in Dersim in 1937 and 1938, remembered locally as Tertele. Her first argument is that these state-organised killings and deportations of Kurdish Alevis meet the definition of genocide.

Using census figures and other surviving documents, she works towards a plausible estimate of the number of people killed, and shows how the state obscured the figures, which she reads as evidence of planning and preparation. She then turns to the present, arguing that denial has also taken hold in parts of the Turkish left, whose organisations, she contends, came to repeat rhetoric close to the state’s own nationalist position.

Deniz presents Dersim as both a historical crime and an ongoing process of denial, and argues that reassessing it is necessary for historical truth and for recognition of the victims. The article is open access.

Full article

Read the full article on Genocide Studies and Prevention (open access)

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