We held our commemoration event on 13.11.2021 on Oranienplatz.
In the beginning, Pir Seydali Cicek and Pastor Dorthe Gülzow held a devotional ceremony in Zaza and German.
Afterwards, the following people made contributions: Our Chairperson Müslüm Karadas, Chairman of the Alevi Community of Berlin Dr. Yüksel Özdemir, Prof. h.c. Dr. phil. Tessa Hofmann, MP Hakan Demir (SPD), MP Canan Bayram (The Greens) and Hakan Tas (Die Linke – Berlin).
Short quote from the speech of Müslüm Karadas:
“OUR WORK ON THE MEMORIAL SITE ZUM TERTELE IS ENTERING THE FINAL PHASE We are now in the process of determining the location of the monument and now have a concrete proposal. Following the Alevi associations in Berlin, we will suggest that the monument be erected at Oranienplatz. The same place where we are holding the event. If this monument is erected here, it will be the success of all the people in Berlin, of all other faiths and ethnic identities who have been massacred.”
Short quote from Kemal Karabulut’s speech:
“The occasion today is the imminent creation of a memorial to the TERTELE victims, forced assimilations and victims of cultural persecution in Turkey in 1937/38 and beyond. The exact location of the monument is still being coordinated with the district, but we hope that we will be able to anchor ourselves here at Oranienplatz, because a commemoration from our ranks has been taking place here for over 28 years. Our monument is intended to remind our descendants, but also our fellow citizens, that we did not only come as migrant workers, but for various reasons we used labour migration to leave our precarious lives in our homeland. We didn’t leave our memories at the border. We and our memories belong to this city”
Short quote from the speech of Prof. h.c. Dr. phil. Tessa Hofmann:
“We are gathered here today to commemorate the victims of the genocide of the Alevis Dersims. So far, there is no place of mourning, admonition or learning in Berlin for such commemoration. The Dersim cultural community submitted an application to this effect seven years ago, which has since been approved, but the implementation is proving to be lengthy. I very much hope that we will soon have a memorial in public space where we can gather on the two days of remembrance of the Dersimis, on November 15 and May 4, to bow down in memory of the tens of thousands of victims of Tertele. Since 1993, the Dersim cultural community has been commemorating the victims of persecution by the Alevis in Turkey here at Oranienplatz …
Such biographical and methodological continuities can be proven even more frequently on closer inspection. For the Alevi-Dersimian communities of origin, however, it is not only the knowledge of their history of persecution that is important. It is at least as important that they express their collective and individual grief in their living environment. It is important that they experience our solidarity with their need for grief. Their story of suffering is to become a permanent part of a transnational culture of remembrance in Germany.”
The party representatives and the chairman of the Alevi community in Berlin have agreed with the suggestions and opinions presented above and have spoken out in favour of a monument Dersim 37/38 in Oranienplatz.
The rally ended peacefully with musical sounds.
