today, 1937: seyid rıza is taken to court in elazığ, where he would be sentenced to death. he was the leader of the #resistance against the state's genocidal campaign against the alevi kurds of #dersim, 1937 & 1938. he was hanged, and never forgotten. a #hero in kurdish history. 
both kurds and turks refer to seyid rıza as leader of an #uprising: kurds because it confirms their narrative of kurdish uprisings, turks because they consider it an excuse for the brutal state action. but it's more accurate to call him a #resistance leader. why?
seyid rıza was well informed about the state's brutal ways of bringing #kurdish regions under central control since halfway 19th century, during ottoman times, and he knew what had happened to #armenians in #anatolia. inaccessible #dersim had not been brought under control - yet.
in early 1930s, the state started to make preparations to bring #dersim under submission: demography laws etc were passed in parliament and a military infrastructure was built in the province. seyid rıza, a well respected leader, knew what was going to happen and resisted.
seyid rıza was a #resistance leader. he did everything he could to save the lives of the #dersim people - he even handed his weapons to the state. but he was hanged, right before pres. atatürk came to dersim to inspect how operation 'bring civilization to dersim' was progressing.
in the #dersim #massacres of 1937 and 1938, (probably tens of) thousands of men, women and children were brutally murdered. it's close to certain #chemical weapons were also used, to kill people hiding in caves. thousands were forcibly moved to elsewhere in #turkey.
i dived into the history of the #dersim #massacres for my previous book, 'the boys are dead' (2015). it's about #roboski massacre (28-12-2011). i saw banners in the village: 'dersim 1937, roboski 2011' and had to explain that to my readers. i learned a lot.
during my reseach an academic pointed out an old song to me about the #dersim #massacres. it's in the local #zazaki language and talks about how they even gave their weapons but nothing helped. the song is performed here by the amazing kahraman brothers.
my book about #roboski massacre, 'the boys are dead', with extensive info on the #dersim massacres and answers to many more questions you were afraid to ask to the turkish state, is available in english, turkish, dutch and arabic. check frederikegeerdink.com/my-books/ for info.
(sorry, two tweets had the wrong url and i had to delete and retweet them with the correct links.)
