Aims and Procedure of the Conference:
On the occasion of the 87th anniversary of the Dersim Genocide, we would like to begin by addressing the causes and consequences of state policy in the Ottoman Empire and Republican Turkey, which led to various genocides, and to communicate them to the local public. Afterwards, we would like to deal explicitly with the genocide in Dersim, about which very little is known, as well as an analysis of the state policy of Turkization and Islamization in the founding phase of the Turkish Republic. In this way, we would like to contribute to further research into the politics of violence and extermination against ethnic and religious minorities in Turkey. Furthermore, the Dersim Protocol will be assessed as an unrecognized/unknown genocide from the perspective of international law and genocide research. This part of the conference is also intended to show possibilities for coming to terms with the past in the light of international experience. Finally, the importance of raising awareness of the trauma experienced by societies that have been subjected to genocide will be highlighted. In particular, the transgenerational transmission of a collectively experienced trauma between the different generations and the methods for coping with it will be shown. The conference is intended to contribute to a better understanding of the historical and social traumas of the affected migrant community in local society. To this end, however, the aim is also to shed light on the influence that racism and religious fundamentalism still have within the affected population groups today.
However, it also aims to promote a critical debate within migrant
communities about the causes and consequences of the various genocides and the policies that led to them. Through this critical engagement with this topic, we hope to strengthen democratic and humanistic values within the affected migrant societies as well.
Furthermore, the awareness of migration as a migration of an individual’s mental world from one place to another in the local society is also to be strengthened. Because every person brings their own history, culture, faith and traumas with them, which have their roots in the regions of origin. We believe that a better understanding of the migrant communities with their peculiarities described above will have a positive influence on social interaction here.
Date: Saturday, May 4, 2024
Hours: 15:00 – 22:00
Location: Alte Feuerwache , Melchiorstraße 3, 50670 Cologne Cologne
Admission: 15:00 – 15:30
Start: 15:30
Admission: 7-10 Euro
Opening speeches, Tüday etc.
Section 1: 16:00- 18:00
Program:
Nation-Building and Violence: The Turkification of Anatolia at the End of the Ottoman Empire
Prof. Dr. Hans Lukas Kieser
The Founding Ideology of the Turkish Republic and the “Tertele” of Dersim
Kazim Gündogan (non-fiction author, writer)
Dersim’s “Tertele” in International Law and Genocide Studies
Dr. Hüseyin Celik
Genocide – Trauma – Reappraisal and Healing Processes
Prof. Dr. Jan Ilhan Kizilhan
Moderation: Ayse Kalmaz (author, director)
Language: German-Turkish simultaneous translation
Discussion and Q&A session between the panel and the audience
2 . Part
Musical program: Melodies of the peoples affected by the genocide
Beser Sahin
Djancate, Janet & Aykut
Asli Zelal
Organizer:
TÜDAY (Human Rights Association Turkey/Germany),
AABF (Federation of Alevi Associations in Germany),
FDG (Federation of Dersim Communities in Europe)
Supporters: Kurdish Community in Germany, Federation of Yazidi Associations,
Dersim Soykirim Karsiti Dernegi 1938 e.V., KulturForum TurkeyGermany, Dersim Foundation
Academic Exchange, Melanchthon Academy, NAVEND (Center for Kurdish Studies e.V.), Cerkesya Hareketi-Cologne, The Alevi Youth in NRW e.V. (BDAJ-NRW),
Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Initiative “Remembering Genocide”, Voices of Solidarity, Multicultural Forum e.V., Agadeka,
On the occasion of the 87th anniversary
on May 4 We Commemorate the Victims of DERSİM 38 Tertele
A genocide in the shadow of the Second World War.
May 4 is the day of remembrance of the Dersim genocide. On this day, Dersimer and her friends in Dortmund and the surrounding area, together with many parts of Germany, Europe and the world, commemorate the tens of thousands of innocent civilians who were brutally murdered.
The Turkic policy wanted to create a race, a language, a faith. This resulted in years of oppression and assimilation against the population of Dersim, which resulted in a genocide/Tertele in 1937/38.
The historical, cultural and social pillars of Dersims and the Alevi Kızılbaş people. were destroyed. While we bow respectfully to the memory of all the people murdered in Dersim 38 Tertele, we once again call on the state authorities to face up to their own dark history.
Although then-Prime Minister Erdoğan admitted the genocide in a political maneuver to then-CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu on November 23, 2011, he has so far taken no concrete steps and has not truly apologized to the people of Dersim, instead pushing for a rapid eradication of Dersim culture.
In particular, the villagers of Dersim, who were forcibly expelled from their villages in 1994-95, were not allowed to return to their villages. Thus, the construction of dams and hydroelectric power plants has continued, the nature and forests of Dersim have been burned down and our forests are still being burned down and cut down for so-called “safety reasons”. Dersim, the motherland of Alevis and Kızılbaş, continues to disappear and the people of Dersim continue to be stigmatized. All Alevi, Romanian, Armenian and Kurdish initiatives of the AKP government remain pure words, as well as the aforementioned “apology”.
President Erdoğan, Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmus and all party leaders: “How long will the wound of Dersim 1937-38, which has not healed for 87 years, continue to bleed? Listen to the Dersimers and their screams now! Do not ignore the demands of the people of Dersim. The people of Dersim expect you to take concrete steps and comply with the demands and your apology. Don’t close your ears to Dersim’s scream.
We call on all those who stand up for democracy, human rights, love and justice to join us on this painful day of remembrance, May 4.
It is the duty of every honorable person who says he is righteous to listen to the cries of the people of Dersim. We invite all upright people and institutions to participate in our commemoration on May 4th.
Contribute to Dersim’s Scream!
If you are not with us, we are missing one person!
ADDRESS: HAUS DER VIELFALT, ZUR VIELFALT 21, 44147 DORTMUND, at 6.00 p.m.
Dersim, Municipality of Westphalia
