VAN - Noting that the massacres that started 93 years ago in Geliyê Zîlan are still continuing, writer İkram İşler said: "There has been a policy of killing and ignoring Kurds since Lausanne. The massacre mentality has not lost anything from itself. The same mentality continues"
93 years have passed since the Geliyê Zîlan Massacre (Zilan Creek Massacre), one of the biggest massacres against the Kurds. On July 13, 1930, tens of thousands of Kurds were massacred in the Zîlan Valley in the Erdîş (Erciş) district of Wan. While 44 villages, including Hesenebdal, Exs, Kelle, Qizil Kilîse, Zorova, Binesi, Bunizî, Pelexl and Kerx villages, were set on fire, the survivors of the massacre were exiled.
The Xoybûn Organization, which was established in Lebanon after Biroyê Heski Têlî's revolt on Mount Ararat in 1926, became involved in the rebellion in 1929. Xoybûn sends Seyid Resul, a member of the Berzenci Tribe, to Zilan Creek (Geliyê Zîlan) to gather the rebels who fought in disarray. Seyid Resul besieged Erdiş with his group of 400 people. The rebels, who retreated as a result of protracted conflicts, pass to Iran. Thereupon, Derviş Bey, who was serving as a captain in Erdîş, took his detachment and blockaded Zilan Creek. 44 villages in the Zilan region, whose entrances and exits are held by the soldiers, are set on fire. After the villages were set on fire, thousands of people were swept away with machine guns and killed, and the survivors were exiled. The animals and other property of the villagers are confiscated.
Villagers who survive the burials or escape and save their lives are forced to live on the run for a long time. Although the number of people killed in the Zilan Massacre is stated as 15 thousand, the witnesses of the period and some different sources state that the real number is more than 40 thousand.
THE HEADLINE OF THE CUMHURİYET NEWSPAPER
The newspaper Cumhuriyet, which defended the massacre at that time, describes the Zilan Massacre, one of the biggest massacres in Kurdish history, with a photograph showing the lifeless bodies of people on July 16, 1930: "On the hills of Mount Ararat, our airplanes are bombarding the rockers very fiercely. Mount Ararat constantly explodes and fires. The Turks' iron eagles are clearing the accounts of the rebels. Zilan Creek is full of corpses."
We talked about the massacre and the period with researcher and writer İkram İşler, who has published two volumes of books under the name “Zilan File” and has been doing research on Zilan for years.
WORLD WAR 1 AND THE KURDS
Stating that the process leading to the Zilan Massacre started with the 1st World War, İşler said: "The struggle to re-share the world emerged in this war. The wars called the 'War of Liberation' started in the later period and the Kurds played a very important role here. Some promises were made to the Kurds. Later, after the Republic of Turkey was accepted as a state, the promises made to the Kurds were broken. For the first time in Sivas, the Koçgiri tribe wrote to Atatürk, saying, 'Withdraw your soldiers, we will establish our own state. We will fulfill your promise.' because of the process of the period, Atatürk could not intervene much at first, but then it was bloodily suppressed.”
THE MASSACRE BEGINS
Stating that the city was surrounded by 90 thousand soldiers with the start of the Agirî Rebellion, İşler said: “Of course, the state bought large and state-of-the-art weapons at that time. The resisters are trying to open two different fronts. These fronts open in Panos and Zilan. The Panos front is not successful, but Zilan is successful and they advance as far as Erdîş. The war that started in Erdiş is being tried to be broken with the intense military dispatch of the Turkish State. The resisters are then forced to withdraw and the citizens are left unattended. The perpetrators of the massacre are people assigned by Ankara. This massacre was carried out by the soldiers under the command of Turkish officer Ahmet Derviş.
'THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY WAS FOUNDED ON THIS MASSACRES'
Noting that Colonel Derviş, who carried out the Zilan Massacre, became a general later on, İşler said: “The massacre begins in 9 places. First they start collecting the people who participated in the massacre, and the collection takes 6 months. The first major massacres take place within a week. The massacre starts from the Hemoyi branch of Zilan Creek and spreads to other regions. The great massacre takes place in the Kundik Region. The massacre ends and the 'hunting' begins with the decision made later. They start catching and killing everyone who escaped from the massacre and took shelter in the forests. They are not satisfied with this and they burn the villages. Then they gather the people who participated in the revolt and send them to Adana on foot. The journey is so bad that hundreds of people die on the journey. People are either killed on the roads or die because of the conditions in prison. The rest are tried in show trials, and many are either executed or given large prison sentences. The rest are exiled. The Republic of Türkiye was founded on this massacre.”
'THE MASSACRE CONTINUES'
Emphasizing that the massacres against the Kurds still continue, İşler said: “When it comes to the Kurds, all the parties are still united and are carrying out an enmity. The massacre that started in Zilan continued in Sur and Gever. These massacres are not only killing, but everything that belongs to the Kurds is targeted. These are the massacres of the age. This will continue as long as the Kurds are ignored. There has been a policy of killing and ignoring Kurds since Lausanne. The language and life of the Kurds have been banned for years. The massacre mentality has not lost anything from itself and the same mentality continues. Kurds talk about peace in every situation, but this massacre mentality of the government continues today, changing its shape.”
MA / Berivan Kutlu