THE ACCEPTED GENOCIDE OF KURDS IN TURKEY
By Dr Rebwar Fatah
Kurdish Media, UK
Oct 26 2006
Since the Armenian genocide, Turkey has done very well to hide and
disguise its dark history from the international community. But a
shady past rarely dawns a bright future.
Instead, Turkey is re-branding itself with Europe-friendly terms to
essentially get rid of what it has always wanted to be rid of.
Turkey’s tidy up of its language: words with a distinct Kurdish origin
wiped out and replaced. Indeed, anything that is not strictly Turkish
has been linked to "terrorism" – a trigger word guaranteed to win
the sympathies of the international community.
The Turkish constitution does not recognise Kurds in Turkey,
and so often labels them as terrorists, providing a convenient
scapegoat for military uprisings and other political issues. Thus,
"terrorist" becomes a synonym for Kurds.
Turkey frequently argues that the PKK is a terrorist
organisation; hence all Kurdish organisations are banned for
what they may imply.
Turkey is desperately in need of an imaginary threat to its
"national security", "territorial integrity" and "sovereignty",
achieved by "separatist/terrorist" Kurds. The scale of the
suffering Kurds and destruction of Kurdish homeland does not
fit into any "terrorist" definition. In 1999, the death toll of Kurds
killed in Turkish military operations increased to over 40,000.
According to the figures published by Turkey’s own Parliament,
6,000 Kurdish villages were systematically evacuated of all
inhabitants and 3,000,000 Kurds have been displaced. This sounds like
an elimination of a people, a culture and a homeland.
If Turkey is genuine in its elimination of terrorism, it must take
brave steps, accepting Kurdish people and their homeland, Kurdistan,
and ending its history of oppression.
Professor Noam Chomsky called the Turkish response to Kurds an "ethnic
cleansing", resulting in the death of thousands, the emigration of over
two million people and the destruction of approximately 6000 villages.
In fact, these methods by which Turkey has sought to oppress the
Kurdish people are similar to those used by Saddam Hussein in the
recent past, including the destruction of Kurdish land, mass evacuation
and deportation. In some other areas, Turkey has used more oppressive
methods to achieve its "Final Solution" of the Kurdish Issue. Some have
found this unsurprising, given Turkey’s Ottoman ancestry. During World
War I, for example, the Ottoman Empire allied itself with Germany,
and in the conflict’s immediate aftermath conducted a programme aiming
to exterminate the Armenians, Greeks, Yezidis and Alwis. To date,
however, Turkey denies these genocidal campaigns.
The oppression of Kurdish people within Turkey can be defined as
genocide in various ways; cultural, linguistic and physical all play
a part in the cleansing of Kurdish ethnicity from Turkey itself,
and are still embraced by the Turkish constitution.
The head of the British Parliamentary Human Rights Commission, Lord
Avebury, said of Turkish atrocities in 1996 that,
"Just as many people in western Europe turned a blind eye to Hitler’s
preparations for the Holocaust in the thirties, the democratic world
ignores the evidence of incipient genocide against the Kurds in
Turkey today."
As history has shown in Iraq, Turkey cannot attempt to solve the
Kurdistan issue with violence and oppression; the days have well passed
in which campaigns of genocide can be "successfully" conducted, and
Turkey must look to the future, realising that modern Kurds are not
as Kurds from the dark ages.
Examples of atrocities by Turks
The history of Turks from Ottoman Empire to the Turkish State is a
continuous attempt to eliminate any ethnic and religious group that
come in contact with them.
1821, April 22 – Execution of the Patriarch of Constantinople,
Gregorios and loosing of Turkish mobs on the Greek inhabitants of
the cities and towns of the Turkish mainland, as a reprisal for the
Greek upraise in Peloponisos.
1822 – The Sultan takes new reprisals to terrify the Christians on
the Island of Chios. 50,000 Greeks are murdered.
1850 – 12,000 Armenians and Nestorians are massacred by Turkish
government.
1860, April 7 – The Sultan orders a massacre of the Maronite villagers
in Lebanon.
1860, July 6 – Syrians are massacred under the direction of Ahmed
Pasa in Damascus. 11,000 killed.
1876 – Turkish authorities suppress an uprising in Bulgaria. 15,000
people are massacred in the area of Plovdiv in Bulgaria, among them
are a number of Armenian members from the local colony. 58 villages
and 5 monasteries are destroyed.
1877, June 28 – After the Russian retreat during the Russo-Turkish
war, the Turkish army and Kurdish Guerrillas destroy Christian
villages. Roughly 6,000 Armenians die.
1892, Summer – 8,000 Yezidis, near Mosul, are massacred and their
villages are burned by orders of Ferik pasha for refusing to accept
Mohammed.
1894, September to 1896, August – Sultan Hamit applies the policy of
genocide to Armenians.
1894, August and September – 12,000 Armenians are killed in Sassun.
1895, October – The first organised genocide takes place in
Constantinople and Trebizond.
1895, November and December – The Turkish authorities organize a
large massacre throughout the country.
1896, June – Massacre of Armenians at the city of Van.
1896 – 300,000 Armenians are massacred in Constantinople.
1896, May 12 – 55,000 Greeks are murdered in the island of Crete,
while the conflicts between Greeks and Turks in the island continue.
1909, March – 30,000 Armenians and some American missionaries
are massacred in Adana, Tarsus and other towns of Cilicia by the
Young-Turks.
1909 – Revolt of the Arabs in Yemen is suppressed by the Young-Turks.
1911, October 1 – Emilianos, Bishop of Grevena, is assassinated by
the Turks.
1912 – The Turkish army retreat from East Thrace and loot the villages
of the Didimoticho and Andrianopole districts. Villages in the Malgara
district are burnt. The same happens in Kessani.
Assassinations and massacres accompany the destruction and looting
in this predominantly Greek region.
1913 – The re-occupation of Eastern Thrace by the Turkish army leads
to atrocities against Greeks. 15,690 are massacred.
1913, February – The Greek inhabitants of Crithea are compelled to
leave their village in East Thrace by the Turkish authorities. A
brutal looting follows.
1914, January to December – More than 250,000 Greeks are exiled from
East Thrace and the region of Smyrna. Their properties are confiscated.
1914, May 27 – The Christian population of Pergamum is ordered to leave
the town within two hours by the Turkish authorities. The terrorized
inhabitants take refuge in the Greek island of Mytilini.
1914, May and June – The Turkish authorities enact all kind of
persecutions in the Greek region of west Asia Minor. The coast of
Asia Minor is devastated. In Erithrea and Fokea Greeks are massacred.
1914, July and August – The Turkish government creates "the forced
labour battalions". It is a new scheme for the extermination of the
Greek-Ottoman citizens drafted in the Turkish army. By this method
400,000 Greeks are exterminated through hunger, hardship, maltreatment
and deprivation.
1914, August – 12,000 Assyrians are murdered by Djevdet Khalil Bey.
The number of Assyrians of all faiths, massacred by the Turks since
1895 is up to 424,000
1914, September – Greeks of the Makri region are killed by the Turks.
1914, November – By orders of the Turkish government many villages of
Eastern Thrace are forcibly evacuated (Neochorio, Galatas, Callipoli
etc.). Thousands flee from their ancestral homes to Greece.
1914, November and December – By order of the Turkish government, the
region of Visii and part of the Saranda Eklisiae is evacuated. 19,000
Greeks are exiled in Anatolia and their properties looted. According
to the Ecumenical Patriarchate records, 119,940 Greeks were expelled
from East Thrace.
1915, April – Organized arrests of a large number of Armenian
intellectuals and prominent national leaders in Constantinople
and the provinces. They are deported to Anatolia and are killed on
the way. The Armenian soldiers of the Turkish army are disarmed and
massacred by the thousands. The Armenian population is exiled to the
Syrian Desert and massacred.
1915 – The Turks initiate a fierce persecution campaign against the
Syrian Orthodox and Nestorian inhabitants of Hakkari, Mardin and
Midyat regions. One of the first victims was Adai Ser, Archbishop of
Sert. This annihilation campaign which included large scale massacres
and destruction continued till the end of World War I.
1915, August 20 to 1916, May 6 – The Ottomans hang 35 Lebanese and
Syrian national leaders in Al Burj square in Lebanon and Al Marja
square in Syria, with the charge of "struggling for freedom". Under
Ottoman rule, a total of 130,000 Lebanese and Syrians are killed.
1916 – The Turks force the inhabitants of different regions of Pontus
to immigrate to Sivas. Only 550 survived out of 16,750 inhabitants of
the Elevi and Tripoli regions. Of the 49,520 inhabitants of Trebizond
only 20,300 remained alive.
1916 – Destruction of the region Riseou-Platanou of Pontus.
1917, Spring – 23,000 Greeks, inhabitants of Cydoniae, are deported.
1917, November – 400 Greek families are expelled from S.W. Asia
Minor. Their properties are looted.
1918, April – Another 8,000 Greek families are expelled from S.W.
Asia Minor.
1920 – Chrisanthos, Bishop of Trebizond, is condemned to death in
Adsentia by the Court Martial of Ankara. The Bishop of Zilon dies
in jail.
1920 – 30,000 Armenians are massacred in the areas of Kars and
Alexandropole by Kemalists.
1920, September – Kemalist Turkey attacks Armenia. The Armenians
fight against the Turkish army, but finally they succumb on the 2nd
of December 1920. The Turkish victory is followed by a massacre of the
Armenians and the annexation of one half of the Armenia’s Independent
Republic of May 28, 1918, to Turkey.
1920 to 1921 – Another 50,000 Armenians are executed by Kemalists.
1921, June 3 – 1,320 Greeks, inhabitants of Samsus, are arrested by
Kemalists. The next day 701 of the detainees are killed. The victims
are buried in mass graves behind the house of Bekir Pasha. The rest
are exiled to the interior of Anatolia.
1922, September 9 – The Turks enter Smyrna and ignite it. Massacres
of Greeks and Armenians are organized. The death count is around
150,000 persons.
1924, July 10 – The Turkish army suppresses the Kurdish revolt in
Hakkari. After 79 days, 36 villages are vandalized and destroyed,
and 12 others are erased.
1925, February – 30,000 Kurds are killed during a revolt against the
Turkish authorities. It is estimated that the Kurds have suffered the
loss of 500,000 people by massacres and displacements by the Turks
over the years.
1925, March 3 – The great Kurdish revolution bursts out at Elazig
under Seyh – Sait 10.000 Kurds seize Harput and attack Diyarbakir, the
Capital of Kurdistan After the complete destruction of 48 villages. The
revolution was suppressed at 7/10/1927 drowned in Kurdish blood.
1927, May 30 – 2,000 Kurdish fighters are killed in Amed (Diyarbakir)
and Agri. For many days, the waters of the Murat river are turned
red by blood.
1937, May 23 – The Turkish government forbids the edition of the
newspaper of Constantinople "Son Telegraph", because it has referred
to the Kurdish sufferings.
1938 – Turkey annexes the Sanjak of Antiohie-Hatay. Armenian and Arab
population is exiled.
1942, November 11 – The law of taxation on property of the non-Muslims
of Turkey (Varlik Vergisi) is voted. It is an attempt of economic
extermination of the Greek, Armenian and Jewish communities economic
authorities.
1955, September 6 – The Turkish authorities organize a great pogrom
against the Greeks of Constantinople. 29 churches are burnt and 46
are looted. The graves of the Ecumenical Patriarchs and Christian
cemeteries are vandalized. Thousands of shops are destroyed. Hundred
of women are raped.
1963 – 1967 – Turkey provokes the stability of the newborn Republic
of Cyprus by using agents.
1964 – Turkey unilaterally denounces the Convention of Establishment
of Commerce and Navigation of 1930 (between Venizelos and AtaTurk).
The Greek citizens are forced to leave Turkey immediately. Their
relatives are obliged to expedite their departure from the country. A
secret law is issued denying Greek citizens all their property rights
in Turkey.
1964 – The Turkish government expels 12,000 Greeks of Constantinople
declaring them as spies. Their properties are confiscated.
1964 – All minority schools on the islands of Imvros and Tenedos are
closed while Turkish jails are established. The properties of the Greek
population are expropriated. The Greek minority flee the islands. It
is noteworthy that both the Greek island Sof Imvros and Tenedos are
ceded to Turkey according to the Treaty of Lausanne because they lay
at the entrance to the Dardanelles. According to Article 14 of the
aforementioned treaty the protection of person and property of the
native non-Muslim population is guaranteed. However, the intransigent
Turkish policy of uprooting and annihilation of non-Turkish ethnic
groups, and the systematic efforts to Turkify the islands with mass
settlings of Turks are the reasons that today, from the 12,000 Greek
inhabitants only 300 elderly people remain, for whom emigration would
be pointless.
1967 – Vandalism in St. Anna’s church in the village of Agridia
in Imvros, another example of the Turkish policy of "national
purification".
1973 – 1974 – De facto questioning of Greece’s sovereign rights over
the Aegean continental shelf, through the granting of research licenses
to the Turkish government petroleum company (TRAO) and the sending
of the research vessel "CARDALI" to conduct research in the area.
1974 – De facto questioning of Greek air space of 10 n.m., for the
first time since 1931. Continuous and massive violations of Greek
air space (over 500 in 1995 alone). Over 80 percent of violations
occur at less than 6 n.m. from the Greek coast and even over the
Greek islands. De facto arbitrary rejection by Turkey of Athens F.I.R.
(until 1980).
1974, July 20 – The Turkish army invades the independent and unarmed
island of Cyprus, a sovereign member of the U.N. and seizes the 40%
of its territory, on the pretext that is necessary for the security
of Turkish-Cypriot minority, which comprises the 18% of the whole
population. In this campaign called "operation peace" by Ankara,
5,000 Cypriots are killed, 1,619 are kidnapped, hundreds are tortured,
raped and exiled to Turkey.
1978, December 25 – Turkish fascists massacre hundreds of Kurds
in Marash.
1978, December 28 – Proclamation of Martial Law in 15 provinces of
Northern Kurdistan prohibiting for years any information about the
suffering of the Kurdish people.
1978, December – 110 Kurds are massacred in the Northern Kurdistan,
city of Kahramanmaras.
1979, December to 1980, September – Conflicts between the PKK and the
Turkish state provided a distinctively ethnic source of violence. Few
thousands Kurds were killed (mostly civilians) in different incidents.
1980, July – An outbreak of violence erupts in Corum, central
Anatolia, causing 30 deaths and a mass exodus of terrified Alevis
from the region.
1983 – A law banned the use, either in speech or in uniting, of any
language not recognized as the official language of another country
(in effect, Kurdish).
1984 – Turkey shuts off the supply of water from the Alkuwik river
which originates from Turkey and reaches the south of Allepo, Syria,
leading to the desertification of the area after its plains dried out.
1988, February – A pogrom night is organized to Armenian population
in Baku and Sumgait regions with a replica organization of the terror
night of Constantinople in 1955.
1989 – Passage of arbitrary Turkish law establishing Turkish "Search
and Rescue" rights over half of the Aegean, in direct violation of
ICAO rules.
1991, August to December – The Turkish Air Force and Army attacks the
PKK groups in Southern Kurdistan with continuous bombing of Kurdish
villages. More than 100 Kurds, including women and children, perished
and 150 were injured.
1992 – Ankara builds the "Ataturk" dam on the river Euphrates and
severely decreases its flow to Iraq and Syria, thus threatening the
agriculture and economic survival of both nations.
1992, January to 1993, October – Turkish bombing of Kurdish villages.
4,800 are injured among which 2,000 eventually perish.
1994, May to August – Renewed Turkish raids on Kurds claim the lives
of 400 Kurdish villagers and injure more than 200.
1995 – A pogrom night is organized by the Turkish government at Gari
Osman Pascha district in Istanbul against the Alewi, a religious
population.
1995, March 20 – 35,000 Turkish soldiers enter Southern Kurdistan under
the pretext of fighting the PKK groups that, according to Ankara,
had taken refuge there. Through indiscriminate bombing, torture
and forced marches on PKK minefields, 200 Kurds are killed, most of
whom were non-combatants. More than 50,000 Turkish troops moved into
Southern Kurdistan. Along four routes, a 335 kilometres long border
was breached and eyewitnesses noted that advanced Turkish teams were
sent some 40 kilometres inside South Kurdistan. Civilian Kurds have
been killed and refugee camps have been bombarded from the air.
1996, January 31 – The Turkish army lands some of its men on the
smaller of the Imia islets which constitutes an integral part of
Greek territory according to international treaties and agreements
dating back to 1923. It is the first time that Turkey openly lays
claims over actual Greek territory.
1996, May 6 – After a renewed, intensive six-week military campaign,
Turkey withdraws its last soldiers from southern Kurdistan. The final
number of the Kurdish casualties is more than 400. The injured are
even more.
1996, August – During a week of peaceful demonstrations on the
borders of occupied Nicosia, the Turkish troops opened fire on the
demonstrators killing two people and injuring forty.
1997, February – Ankara responds to the Cypriot government’s plans
to purchase air-defence systems by threatening to invade and occupy
the free areas. A threat often adopted since 1974.
1999 – The death toll of Kurds killed in Turkish military operations
rises to over 40,000 and according to the figures published by Turkeys
own parliament, 6,000 Kurdish villages were systematically evacuated
of all inhabitants and 3,000,000 Kurds have been displaced.
Reference
Chomsky, Noam, ‘Alpaslan Isikli to Noam Chomsky – Email Conversations’
archived at: (22nd
October 2006)
Levene, Mark, Creating a Modern "Zone of Genocide": The
Impact of Nation- and State-Formation on Eastern Anatolia,
1878-1923, Holocaust Genocide Studies 12: 393-433. Archived at:
ract/12/3/393 (22nd
October 2006)
Koivunen, Kristiina, ‘The Invisible
War in North Kurdistan’, p.27 archived:
/sospo/vk/koivunen/theinvis.pdf
(22nd October 2006)
Lord Avebury, House of Lords, 22nd January 1996
occidentalis.com, The Turkish crime of our century, 22 October 2006,
1939&thold=0
The chronology of the events is taken from a number of sources.
My thanks to Michelle Johnson and Chris Lacey.