By Palash R. Ghosh: Subscribe to Palash's RSS feed
November 25, 2011 9:53 AM EST
A fascinating -- and perhaps unprecedented -- political imbroglio has erupted in Turkey over tragic events that occurred more than seventy years ago.
On Wednesday, in a televised address to officials of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan placed the blame for the ‘Dersim massacre’ -- a state military operation that killed almost 14,000 people (mostly Kurdish Alevis) during the late 1930s – entirely upon the principal opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) party.
CHP, which was established by the founder of the modern Turkish state, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, was the only legal political party at that time.
The murders in question occurred between 1936 and 1939 in Dersim in the heavily Kurdish southeastern part of the country when the local population sought to resists efforts by the state to impose its authority there. (Dersim is now called Tunceli).
The Turkish military used aerial bombing and poison gas to crush the rebellion. Even Ataturk’s own adopted daughter, the first female fighter pilot in Turkish history, participated in the campaign.
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Reportedly, another 11,600 people were forcibly exiled from the Dersim region.
Erdogan has now explicitly called for CHP to apologize for the Dersim killings -- creating dissension among the party’s mandarins.
The Prime Minister stated: "If there is need for an apology on behalf of the state, if there is such a practice in the books, I would apologize and I am apologizing. Dersim is the most tragic event in our recent history. It is a disaster that should now be questioned with courage.”
He added: “The party that should confront this incident is not the ruling [AK Party]. It is the CHP, which [was] behind this bloody disaster, who should face up to this incident. Dersim is the most painful and bloody [event] among [the] tens, hundreds of disasters the CHP had caused. It is not the AK Party and the AK Party government that should face this event and apologize, but it is the CHP.”
Dilshod Achilov, a professor of political science at East Tennessee State University, in Johnson City, Tenn., told International Business Times: “There are many dark pages of Turkish history which deserve attention and reconciliation. This bold attempt to apologize to the Kurdish minority suggests that the ruling AK Party is trying to bring the dark spots of Turkish history into the light.”
Achilov added: We have [also] seen that the Erdogan administration, for the first time, managed to prosecute the mighty -- once thought to be infallible -- military generals who dominated the political discourse for dozens of years since. It seems like Erdogan is trying to restore ‘government accountability’ and ‘political responsibility’ by reconciling the past government-sponsored atrocity [in Dersim].”
Meanwhile, Erdogan’s incendiary comments have caused some chaos among the CHP.
Akif Hamzacebi, parliamentary group deputy chairman of CHP, responded to Erdogan by asserting that the Prime Minister is intentionally seeking to create ruptures within Turkey’s political establishment, according to Turkish media.
“The prime minister is spreading hatred, anger and animosity,” Hamzacebi said. “He is engaging in separatism. The prime minister has launched a war against the republic. Next is Ataturk [himself].”
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