Kurds use Twitter to highlight Dersim Genocide
The history of Kurdish people is largely unknown, not because it is impossible to find out about Kurds, but simply because the Kurdish cause has not been sensationalised. Among Muslims little sympathy is shown to Kurdish people, despite the fact that majority of Kurds are Muslims, making them 40 Million stateless people, in comparison to 4 Million Palestinians that have world sympathy. The difference being; the former is Kurdish while the latter is Arab. Palestinian struggle has become internalised within university campuses, Islamic lectures and Muslim-populated countries as an ‘Islamic cause’ while the Kurdish cause has not been.
Kurds have been subject to multiple genocides, from the recent massacre of Halabja in 1988 where thousands of Kurds were indsicrimiantely killed through poisonous chemical gas sanctioned by the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, to Dersim massacre. In the Dersim massacre 40,000 to 70,000 Kurdish people were killed in Turkey, and others were displaced.
Last year I wrote an article highlighting the harrowing accounts of rape that Kurdish women faced, and the indiscriminate killing of thousands. You can read that here.
Kurdish Twitter users have tried to raise awareness about the Dersim Genocide through social media under the hashtag #GenocideinDersim. Here are of the highlights:
“Thousands of Kurds including women & children, were slain; others, mostly children, were thrown into the Euphrates” #GenocideInDersim
— Kamal Chomani (@KamalChomani) May 4, 2012
Turkey’s history is full of genocides and massacres by successive goverments #GenocideInDersim — Shakawan (@Shakawan) May 4, 2012
b’coz the army bricked up the entrances of the caves. These caves are marked with numbers on the military maps of the area #GenocideInDersim — Tara Fatehi (@TaraFatehi) May 4, 2012
Although 70 years have passed, Turkey is not willing to acknowledge this Genocide like many other Genocides in Kurdistan. #GenocideInDersim
— Yekbun (@Yekbuns) May 4, 2012
“Those responsible for the deaths of thousands of people have never been tried nor have they been brought out into light” #GenocideInDersim
— Yekbun (@Yekbuns) May 4, 2012
#GenocideInDersim was only the start of a long & devastating physical and psychological massacre Kurds suffered under the Republic of Turkey
— Ehmedê Xanî (@KurdSeT) May 4, 2012
Speak of what happened in Dersim. Don’t let history forgive. #GenocideInDersim
— Lawen Azad (@LawenAzad) May 4, 2012
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