ONUR ÖYMEN ISTIFA ETSIN!

Republican People's Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman Onur Öymen has angered Turkey's Alevi community by referring to the Turkish government's response to a 1937 rebellion in the predominantly Alevi city of Tunceli, then known as Dersim, as an example of fighting terrorism.

During a speech he delivered in Parliament in criticism of the government's Kurdish initiative, which seeks to extend the rights of Kurds in Turkey to alleviate and ultimately end the separatist terrorism of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Öymen said: “Didn't mothers also cry at the time of the Sheikh Said Rebellion? Didn't mothers also cry at the time of the Dersim Rebellion?” in response to the phrase “Let no more mothers cry,” frequently used by the government as part of its efforts to end the PKK's campaign of terrorism.

The rebellion took place in 1937 in Dersim, which had historically been a semi-autonomous region. Dersim was renamed Tunceli after the rebellion. The rebellion was led by Seyyid Riza, the chief of a Zaza tribe in the region. The Turkish government of the time, led by İsmet İnönü, responded with air strikes against the rebels.

Öymen's reference to the Dersim rebels as an example of terrorism drew anger and resentment from the country's Alevis and Zazas.