Sark Islahat Plani (Orientation Reform Plan)1925: “Our mission is to make Turkish people in Turkish homeland. We will cut off the elements that will oppose Turkishness and Turkism. The qualities that we will seek in the service of the motherland are, above all, that the man is Turkish and Turkist.”
Our article on the Kurdish Massacre that begins with the Ararat Rebellion and ends with the Zilan Massacre, we will only touch on one of the many massacres that were applied to the Kurds. We will try to provide you with details based on the information that has survived prior to complete censorship regimes. The majority of the information regarding the massacre, that still exists today is witness statements from survivors or the soldiers themselves. Zilan is an understudied and largely undisclosed chapter in Turkey’s history.
The massacre of 47,000 people, begins with a rebellion that escalates from Agri to Zilan.
ZILAN
The violent suppression of Sheikh Said uprising, following the release of the Sark Islahat Plani (Orientation Reform Plan) in 1925 and the mass forced resettlement, laid the groundwork for the development of a need for independence.
In 1926, Telli from the ‘Broye Hesike’ tribe initiated a rebellion on the Agri mountains. In 1926, Telli was subjected to armed attacks by gendarmes who wanted him to be exiled. Upon this, Telli gave the message that he would climb up the mountain of Agri and resist. With that being said, it must be noted that the Agri rebellion which had now begun was a rebellion pioneered by the people and not one individual person.
With the rebellion growing and the joining of tribes in the surrounding area, steps were taken for independence. In the spring of 1927, a Kurdish National Congress was convened and all pro-autonomy organizations were dissolved in the Congress and decided to unite them under the name of Hoybun (Independence). The Turkish State sees that a miniature state with a flag was established at the foot of Mount Ararat.
Born in Thessaloniki, famous Turkish Captain Dervis Ahmet was promoted to Colonel; under his command, the Turkish soldiers were sent for the destruction of Zilan. We need to take a closer look at who Ahmet Derviş is. Ahmet Derviş is the butcher of Zilan. In other words, he was specially chosen and sent for the murder of Kurds.
Upon his arrival, Ahmet Derviş calls to the villagers in Zilan and says that they will give them the right to move freely. The villagers who gather around the small village center are greeted with heavy machine guns.
Under the mask of trying to bring national unity and peace, the Turkish state would aim to demolish anything and anyone who was not aligned with the Orientation Reform Plan. Knowing that Kurds would not cooperate with such fascism, the state had launched the ‘Zilan Operation’.
The ‘Zilan Operation’ took place in the regions between Van and Agri, between 20 June and 13 July 1930. Whilst 44 villages were burnt to the ground, 47,000 people were tortured, killed, and raped; mostly in this specific order. Among the victims were mostly babies and children along with pregnant women and the elderly, some at an age of 90 years.
What the government did after the Zilan massacre, was seize 12 villages from the Zilan creek, which consisted of 3 valleys, and established a farm here. Until 1950, the area was completely banned. The state established a farm there, called Altındere Harası, and the farm is still in production. In other words, the property of the killed villagers is now in the hands of the state.
Following the massacre, all the property of the people of the region were confiscated. In 1950, the villagers who applied to the Erciş Criminal Court of First Instance to reclaim their property did not receive any results.
After 1980, when Kenan Evren was President, he brought the Kyrgyz Turks and built a large village on the bones of the Kurds. As if there were no other villages left in the country, the Turkish state placed Kyrgyz Turks in these areas. The message behind this is historical, the Kurds helped the Seljuks in 1071 where the Kyrgyz forces were ineffective. Likewise in the Ottoman-Russian war, the Dardanelles Strait, the War of Independence and the war in Cyprus.
In 2012, the case regarding the rightful properties of the Zilans was moved to the European Court of Human Rights. The case was accepted. Plaintiff (now detained in Van KCK case) Mehmet Gürbüz’s six thousand acres of land owned by his grandfather was confiscated. The result was that the case had been refused, stating that the title deed records from that period were not accepted.
NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES
The Milliyet news agency published a statement, dated 31 August 1930, by the then Prime Minister İsmet İnönü. Ismet’s mentions in his statement that “Only the Turkish nation has the right to demand ethnic and racial rights in this country. No one else has that right. The originally East Turks [the Kurds] who have fallen for propaganda which has no noble basis, have been deceived and ultimately disoriented. ”
Likewise, the Justice Minister of the time, Mahmut Esat Bozkurt, told Milliyet newspaper dated 19 September 1930: “My opinion is that everyone, friends, enemies, and mountains should know that the master of this country is the Turks. Those who are not pure Turks have only one right in the Turkish Motherland: the right to be a servant, the right to be a slave.”
On July 16, 1930, the Turkish State announced the murder in the Zilan Creek as follows: “On the hills of Mount Ararat, our aircraftsmen are bombing violently on the dishonorable. Mount Ararat is constantly moaning in the midst of the explosions and fire. Turkish eagles clear the rebels. The creek is full of corpses till its mouth.”
In its July 16, 1930 issue, Cumhuriyet Newspaper reported the massacre at Zilan Creek as follows: “Our private correspondent in Karakose reports that the villages participating in the bandit activities on the outskirts of Ağrı were burned and their inhabitants were referred to Erciş and settled there. The amount of bandits destroyed during the Zilan operation is more than 15,000. Alone, it is estimated that there are a thousand people who died in front of a platoon. 5 shakes surrendered to Zilan Creek. The war here took place in a very awesome way. Zilan Creek is filled with chickpea corpses. ”
WITNESS ACCOUNTS
