MESOP SUPPORTS : The Association for Reconstruction of Dersim / Haydar Isik, Writer

To the Socialist International Presidential Council  / 28.1.2013

Dear Sir, Dear Madam,

We the Socialist thinkers of Dersim are disturbed that the Republican People’s Party (CHP) is a member of the Socialist International and request its removal from your respected institution.In the years of 1937-39, the then-ruling party CHP had instigated the killings of 70,000 people in Dersim. The present Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had announced that the government had massacred 50,000 people.

The Dersim people are of Kurdish and Alevi background. The Turkish government wanted to abolish this ethnic difference in order to create a new identity, which would turn Kurds into Turks and Alevis into Hanafis. To achieve this, the government at the fabricated that there was an uprising in Dersim to permit the sending of 40,000 Turkish soldiers resulting in the massacre.

First the Government implemented laws which opened a legal gateway to the massacre. After this legal process, they planned and implemented a horrific genocide in Dersim that is rare of its kind in the human history besides the Armenian and Jewish massacres. 

The age of the captivated 75 year old Seyit Riza (a political and religious leader during the 1937-38 Dersim rebellion) was decreased on a Sunday and the age of his 17 year old wounded son was increased  and were executed alongside their comrades. These people who could not speak or understand Turkish has no idea of the offences of which they were accused.

Tens of thousands of our people, including the elderly, women and children were executed by firing squads in public squares. Those who took refuge inside caves were killed with poisonous gas. Tens of thousands of Dersim Kurds were forcefully detached from their roots and were sent to Western Turkey to be assimilated into the Turkish identity.

Kurdish language was banned; village and geographical names were changed to Turkish.

The Turkish government used fear and coercion to obliterate the memory of the genocide amongst our people.

We, the individuals and organisations of Dersim who live and are citizens of have been working for a long time to shed light on the Dersim genocide. For this reason we have held 5 conferences at the European Parliament in Brussels, and on 23rd November 2012 we managed to present the Dersim Genocide in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Lahey.

Not only does not CHP question the massacre, but it supports the Government’s reasoning of same.

CHP is not apologising for instigating the Dersim Genocide.

While CHP is defending the genocide, we believe that it is unsuitable of the Party to be member of the internationally respected Socialist International as a socialist democrat institution.

By barring the freedom of expression and by its stance against cultural diversity, CHP is inciting Nationalism. CHP is a party that has lost its social democratic identity and has become a party which supports the status quo and a right-wing based system.

“CHP’S nationalistic and biased political stance is preventing Turkey from becoming a democratic and civilized nation-state. Therefore, we fervently believe that CHP’S membership and most of all its role of Vice Presidency in the Socialist International is contradictory purely because, unlike CHP, the Socialist International aspires in helping to create a free world.” We request the immediate dismissal of CHP from the Socialist International by the other party member countries as it is not abiding to their core principles.

Free World is only possible by removal of existing injustices.

With this reason we request that Socialist International investigate CHP which depicts its carcinogenic history as clean history and dismiss CHP  from the Socialist International.

“The sample written application in the attached documents will give further and detailed information on what was only briefly mentioned above. The founders and administrative committee of CHP in 1937-38 had refused to abide by The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the Article 5 and Article 6 of the Rome Statute, which are articles adopted by the United Nations which ultimately proves that CHP has been involved in crimes against humanity.

CHP delegates continue to openly support the political measures taken by the government during the time of the genocide in the Turkish Parliament. CHP showed this support in favour of the genocide after the Prime Minister Erdogan apologised for the genocide on 23rd of November, 2011. CHP’s stance further victimised the genocide victims caused immense grief, anger and disbelief. CHP’s denial of the Dersim genocide continued when the CHP’s Vice President Mehmet Akif Hamzacelebi asserted derogatory comments about the murdered Dersim leaders on 21st December 2012. CHP, the member of the Socialist International is determined to  defend these beliefs which have incidents shocked millions of Kurds, Alevis and Armenians.

The deputies of the CHP’s Birgül Ayman Güler said: “You can not treat the Turkish nation, the Kurdish nation is equal.” Therefore it has shown its racist position.

We are aware that CHP who display no care for humanitarian law, has previously come before you due to their intensive efforts to stop the abolishment of Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code  plays no part in the application of humanitarian law and has displayed this by standing against the abolishment of Article 301 which is used as a racist Article against  those of different identities living in Turkey.

We would like to make known that the continued membership CHP; which is a threat to the humanitarian values that have been established by humanity for hundreds of years, at the Socialist International deeply saddens us, the millions of Kurdish Alevi people, who have been victims of genocide. CHP’s national despotic policies do not reflect socialist values in the slightest way, and therefore, we believe this gives a responsibility for the Socialist International, as well as, the world to recognize our rightful request.

Dersim 37-38 Genocide Opposition Association, Ayfer Ber

The Association for Reconstruction of Dersim, Haydar Isik, Writer