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Today's Zaman, Turkey
Nov 29 2011
MHP leader says Dersim was rebellion, not massacre
29 November 2011, Tuesday / TODAY'S ZAMAN, Ä°STANBUL
Opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has
joined a recent war of words between the leaders of the ruling party
and the main opposition party over a massacre in Dersim during the
1930s, saying Turkey does not have a history to be ashamed of and that
the Dersim incident was not a massacre but a rebellion.
Speaking during his party's parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday,
Bahçeli said there is no disgrace in the history of Turkey and that
revisiting the past's `national issues' will benefit no one,
criticizing both the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party)
and the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) for opening up
the 1937 Dersim massacre to debate again.
Although the MHP leader said his party would not join the ongoing war
of words between the two leaders, he said what happened in Dersim
should be defined. `The Dersim incidents should be well defined.
Historians, not politicians, should discuss it. The Dersim incident is
not a massacre, as defined by the prime minister, but a rebellion. The
prime minister should retract his apology [for Dersim] and instead
apologize for his slander about a massacre. Dersim was an attempted
rebellion. Those who started the Dersim rebellion are those who are
involved in today's [Kurdistan Workers' Party] PKK and [Kurdish
Communities Union] KCK,' Bahçeli argued.
CHP leader Kemal KılıçdaroÄ?lu and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an
have been exchanging words over the Dersim massacre for a couple of
weeks. ErdoÄ?an apologized on Wednesday for the Dersim massacre on
behalf of the Turkish state, but accused the CHP of being the actual
culprit and called on the party to offer an apology as well.
KılıçdaroÄ?lu, on the other hand, would not offer an apology and called
on the government to release documents from the state archives that
pertain to Dersim.
The much-debated Dersim massacre concerns the deaths of tens of
thousands of Alevis at the hands of the military in 1937. According to
a 1939 document ErdoÄ?an revealed on Wednesday, 13,806 people were
killed in operations carried out against the people of Dersim between
1936 and 1939.
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-264231-mhp-leader-says-dersim-was-rebellion-not-massacre.html
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Nov 29 2011
MHP leader says Dersim was rebellion, not massacre
29 November 2011, Tuesday / TODAY'S ZAMAN, Ä°STANBUL
Opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has
joined a recent war of words between the leaders of the ruling party
and the main opposition party over a massacre in Dersim during the
1930s, saying Turkey does not have a history to be ashamed of and that
the Dersim incident was not a massacre but a rebellion.
Speaking during his party's parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday,
Bahçeli said there is no disgrace in the history of Turkey and that
revisiting the past's `national issues' will benefit no one,
criticizing both the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party)
and the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) for opening up
the 1937 Dersim massacre to debate again.
Although the MHP leader said his party would not join the ongoing war
of words between the two leaders, he said what happened in Dersim
should be defined. `The Dersim incidents should be well defined.
Historians, not politicians, should discuss it. The Dersim incident is
not a massacre, as defined by the prime minister, but a rebellion. The
prime minister should retract his apology [for Dersim] and instead
apologize for his slander about a massacre. Dersim was an attempted
rebellion. Those who started the Dersim rebellion are those who are
involved in today's [Kurdistan Workers' Party] PKK and [Kurdish
Communities Union] KCK,' Bahçeli argued.
CHP leader Kemal KılıçdaroÄ?lu and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an
have been exchanging words over the Dersim massacre for a couple of
weeks. ErdoÄ?an apologized on Wednesday for the Dersim massacre on
behalf of the Turkish state, but accused the CHP of being the actual
culprit and called on the party to offer an apology as well.
KılıçdaroÄ?lu, on the other hand, would not offer an apology and called
on the government to release documents from the state archives that
pertain to Dersim.
The much-debated Dersim massacre concerns the deaths of tens of
thousands of Alevis at the hands of the military in 1937. According to
a 1939 document ErdoÄ?an revealed on Wednesday, 13,806 people were
killed in operations carried out against the people of Dersim between
1936 and 1939.
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-264231-mhp-leader-says-dersim-was-rebellion-not-massacre.html
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress