Persecution of Kurds

The newly declared Turkish Republic leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk repudiated the Treaty of Sèvres which proposed a referendum be conducted in the Kurdish homeland.

After the Dersim massacre, 40,000-70,000 civilians were killed by the Turkish Army and 11,818 people were exiled, depopulating the province.

[1] Nuri Dersimi stated that many tribesmen were killed after surrendering, and women and children were locked into hay sheds which were then lit on fire.

[13][14] According to an interview given by members of the family to Duvar, the attackers where close to the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) who did not want to permit Kurds to live in the neighborhood.

They were mostly teenagers from the Encü family of Ortasu (in Kurdish: Roboskî) in the Uludere district of Şırnak Province, Turkey.