At the centre of the project is a period of events that we refer to as neutrally as possible as Dersim 1937-38. During these years, the Turkish military used extreme violence against a by no means homogeneous population in the mountains of Anatolia. It is hardly possible to write a sentence about these events, their aftermath and their memory without delving into the thicket of different interpretations and identities. Each of these is highly politicised.

At the time, the events were labelled by the Turkish side as counterinsurgency. For a long time, until well into the 2000s, parts of the radical Turkish left and highly politicised groups that saw themselves as Kurdish also spoke of insurgencies. Historically, it is now clear that these were at least unprovoked massacres and expulsions, and in all probability, even genocide from a legal perspective. The self-ascribed identities of the persecuted and especially of their descendants, now in the fourth generation, are neither homogenous nor stable over time. These affiliations have ethnic –  i.e. marked by language, clothing, customs, etc. – religious and even civic elements. That is how one meets people there,

• who have a Turkish passport but emphatically do not describe themselves as Turkish;
• are Alevi, but ultimately not particularly religious;
• see themselves as Zazaic/Kırmanc and do not want to be seen as Kurdish and vice versa.

Members of this group, which we will refer to collectively as Dersimis, speak predominantly Turkish today. Alphabets for their mother tongue, Kırmancki or Zazaki (to use only the two most common terms), have only existed for a few decades. The majority – alphabets – shows that there are also different opinions within the group itself concerning affiliation. The alphabets are based on Latin script, lean either towards the Kurdish or Turkish alphabet and differ significantly only in terms of diacritics.

Other significant points are the foreign interpretations. On the one hand, these are those by official Turkey, which shift from time to time in line with political cycles but are fundamentally defined by not granting the Dersimis any minority rights of their own. The Dersim region – today the central town is called Tunceli (bronze hand, which corresponds to the meaning of 'iron fist') - is still characterised by a strong military presence: all access roads are blocked by heavy barriers, the mountains have watchtowers and barracks attached to them. Those who come from the area are officially and informally disadvantaged in Turkey.
Many Germans, on the other hand, do not perceive the group as independent and subsume their members under the labels Turkish or even Muslim (an interpretation that is firmly rejected by most members of the group). But in Germany in particular, Alevi communities and, as a smaller group, Dersimis have organised themselves in various legal forms, largely unnoticed by the public for a long time. On the one hand, many associations, societies, and cultural institutions advocate (and increasingly achieve) political visibility and, on the other, cultivate the homeland's culture (especially language and music). A central goal of this remembrance policy is the official recognition of the genocide of the Dersimis in Germany and Turkey. Culture, political visibility, and recognition as a group go hand in hand with a central historical point of reference, the violence in Dersim in 1937-38.

Drafts and plans
Despite its regional and historical specificity, the violence in Dersim must be seen in the context of the formation of the Turkish nation and the associated efforts to homogenise the explicitly Turkish (Muslim-Sunni) nation in terms of language and religion.
Since the founding of the Republic of Turkey, state authorities have problematised the region as rebellious, disobedient, and unruly – it had already been a source of unrest during the Ottoman Empire. Official bodies also resorted to racist arguments and nationalist historical myths.
Kırmancki/Zazaki, a language spoken by many Dersimis, was seen as a mixture of Turkish and Persian and therefore rejected (Jandarma Umum Kumandanlığı, 1932, pp. 35-36). The religion, Alevism, was also considered by many to be un-Turkish.
The need for a military operation, including the disarmament of the population, the removal of local leaders, and the subsequent fundamental reorganisation of the region, are recurring motifs in the reports of various civilian and military actors (ibid., p. 235).
On 25 December 1935, the parliament passed the Law on the Administration of the Province (Tunceli Vilayeti'nin İdaresi Hakkında Kanun, Law No. 2884), which transformed the Dersim region into a province called Tunceli. The first governor and commander of the province, General Abdullah Alpdoğan, ordered the construction of military posts, police, and gendarmerie stations in the districts and sub-districts.

The violence in 1937
The alleged uprising in Dersim began on 20 March 1937, when unknown persons destroyed a wooden bridge over the Harçik River and cut a telephone line to the village of Kahmut (Genelkurmay Harp Tarihi Başkanlığı, 2012, p. 55). In response, the Turkish air force bombed the house of Seyit Rıza, who was declared the mastermind of these events (ibid., p. 58). On 4 May 1937, the Council of Ministers announced the further course of action, including the deportation of the population, the destruction of villages, and the murder of (allegedly armed) people in the so-called insurgency area (ibid., pp. 217-218).

The continuation of violence in 1938
At the end of March 1938, the government decided on a new military operation to gain complete control over the area. The killings were not limited to the military operation phase. As a report by the General Staff dated 20 August 1938 confirms, it was common practice for the troops accompanying the deportation trains to kill anyone who tried to evade deportation (Genelkurmay Harp Tarihi Başkanlığı, 2012, p. 184).
The number of officially confiscated weapons (1,019) contrasts with the number of people killed or arrested (7,954). It can be concluded from this that most victims were unarmed. A further indication of the low number of weapons of the few who offered resistance (the reports mention around 40 people) is provided by an interim summary of the General Staff dated 29 June 1938, according to which 33 soldiers were killed during the entire military operation in 1938 (ibid., p. 134). In contrast, according to official Turkish figures, 13,160 people were killed and 11,818 deported (Akyürekli, 2010, p. 123). How many people were murdered, raped, and deported will never be known. In the following decades, the oppression of the Dersimis and their culture continued.

Bibliography

Akyürekli, M. (2010). Dersim Sorunu 1937–1938. Ankara Üniversitesi.

Genelkurmay Harp Tarihi Başkanlığı (2012). Türkiye Cumhuriyetinde Ayaklanmalar (1924–1938). In Kolektif Kaynak Yayınları (Hrsg.), Genelkurmay Belgelerinde Kürt İsyanları II. (S. 11–270). Kaynak Yayınları.

Jandarma Umum Kumandanlığı (1932). Dersim. Dahiliye Vekaleti.