Trial on "Dersim Massacre" Closed by Prescription

Efo Bozkurt who lost his whole family in the "1938 Dersim Incidents" applied to court under allegations of "crimes against humanity" last year but his complaint was now dismissed.

86-year-old Bozkurt lost both of his parents and his five siblings in 1938 in the village of Çaytaşı in the Dersim district of Hozat.

The so-called "Dersim Massacre" refers to the violent suppression in 1937/38 of the local population of Dersim, now called Tunceli Province (eastern Anatolia). Some sources speak of tens of thousands of Alevi Kurds and Zazas that were killed and thousands more that were forced into exile.

The Hozat Public Chief Prosecution decided to drop procedures on 18 February 2011. It was stated, "The Turkish Criminal Law in effect at the time of the incidents that allegedly happened in Dersim in 1938 did not include 'genocide and crimes against humanity' as imputed by the complainant".

It was furthermore said in the decision that the alleged cases of death were to be evaluated as "homicide" and thus fell under the statute of limitation.

Appeal against the decision

bianet talked to the plaintiff lawyer and writer Hüseyin Aygün who summarized the appeals against the decision under the following headings:

* The decision of the prosecutor does not meet the regulations. Article 90 of the Constitution is based on international law. The basis must be the United Nations' decision that "the statute of limitation does not apply to 'crimes against humanity'. Regardless of saying that Articles 75, 76 and 77 of the Turkish Criminal Law as enforced in 2005 was not applied in the past, international law has to be the basis.

* The law lags behind the developments of the society, the judiciary has to settle that.

* This issue has to be discussed in a domestic framework as well. No research has been carried out at all, the places where the bodies were buried have not been visited and nobody has talked to the witnesses.

"State has to apologize"

Lawyer Aygün declared to appeal to the Erzincan Court (north-eastern Anatolia) and in case this should not yield any result, he is going to apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). He said that it would be good to have this topic discussed by the ECHR but emphasized that it should particularly be discussed in Turkey.

"The CHP [Republican People's Party] and the AKP [ruling Justice and Development Party] are racing against each other who is going to be the first to say 'what happened in Dersim was a massacre'. We request to enforce a special law on the 'Dersim 38 Massacre'. The perpetrators have died long ago, we are not after punishment. The important issue is to discuss history openly and clearly. The state has to apologize officially", Aygün claimed.

"Incident was limited to rebels"

The decision stated that the crime of genocide was not constituted and that the suppression of the uprising was limited to the insurrectionists.

In summary, the decision read, "The actions of the armed rebels came to a stage where they disrupted the national sovereignty of our country and the necessary use of weapons was rendered insufficient. However, it is a historic fact that the incident was limited to the insurrectionists".

"In order to constitute the crime of genocide, the actions have to be executed according to a plan and in a systematic manner". (NV/EÖ/VK)