Dersim apology opens rift in main opposition CHP
An apology voiced for the 1938 massacre in Dersim by a deputy chair of the main opposition Republican Peopleâs Party (CHP) looks set to lead to more internal turmoil within the party, with one of its hardline deputies complaining that Deputy Chair Sezgin Tanrıkuluâs statement resembled the words of the pro-Kurdish Peoplesâ Democratic Party (HDP).
CHP UÅak deputy Dilek Akagün Yılmaz said there was âno differenceâ between the ârebellionâ led by Seyid Rıza in Dersim at the time and the outlawed Kurdistan Workersâ Partyâs (PKK) modern-day attempt to rebel against the state with terrorist activities.
âFor Tanrıkulu, it is neither his right nor his place to offer such an apology. Sezgin Tanrıkulu is acting like a HDP representative. Such an apology has no meaning,â Yılmaz said on Nov. 14.
In Dersim, now known as Tunceli, over 13,000 people were killed during a military operation to quash an apparent Kurdish tribal rebellion during the CHPâs single-party rule. Seyid Rıza, the leader of the movement in Dersim, was executed in 1937.
Late on Nov. 13, during a General Assembly session at Parliament, the same issue sparked a heated debate among deputies of the CHP, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the HDP.
In response to MHP Isparta deputy Nevzat Korkmaz, who criticized Tanrıkuluâs statement and asked whether it represented an âinstitutional statementâ from the CHP, CHP Deputy Parliamentary Group Chair Engin Altay described what happened in Dersim as âunacceptable and inhuman.â
âHowever, the authority to apologize to the people of Dersim for these incidents is not the CHP. What led to those grievances was the state of the Republic of Turkey, and a mistake was made,â...
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