Turkish Sergeant Ali Oz, who participated in the massacre of thousands of Alevi Kurds and Armenians in Dersim, Turkey, in 1937-38, wrote a shocking confession about his role in those killings. It is very disturbing to read the gruesome details of the killings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The source of Oz\u2019s letter is the archive of Hasan Salt\u0131k who was the founder of Kalan Music which produced valuable records of Turkish and Armenian music. He passed away two years ago. Saltik had hundreds of Turkish governmental documents and photos which he shared with several researchers. One of them was Nevzat Onaran who wrote extensively about the confiscated Armenian properties. Prof. Taner Akcam gave me a copy of Oz\u2019s letter which he had received from Onaran. Akcam thanked Nilufer, Saltik\u2019s wife, for giving him permission to use the letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sergeant Oz wrote a letter on December 17, 1946 to Minister of Interior Sukru Kaya, thanking him for having helped him get a job at the intercession of powerful General Abdullah Alpdogan, who was the Governor-Commander of the Dersim region, sent by Ataturk to organize the Dersim massacre. Oz was Alpdogan\u2019s bodyguard in Dersim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oz told Minister Kaya in his letter that his army colleague, Ethem, who was with him during the Dersim massacre, had recently come to visit him. \u201cHe had lost his mind completely. He rose out of bed startled. He went out into the street screaming\u2026. I could barely restrain him. The children they killed constantly troubled him. He couldn\u2019t sleep or anything. With great difficulty I took him to Izmir, brought him to his family and handed him over to them. After I came back, I got the news. He cut his wrists and committed suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sergeant Oz described the impact of the crimes he had committed in Dersim. \u201cThis incident affected me profoundly. The saddening incidents that I experienced began one by one to return to my mind. The eyes of the children I killed pounded in my head, and I too began to not sleep, to not eat. I rise up shaking, I lose myself. It has become such that I don\u2019t know where I have gone, what I have done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oz wrote that he was referred to a psychiatrist. \u201cThe doctor had me write everything that I had experienced and sign it. Now I am taking medicine. They gave me a leave [of absence] for three months. But my Minister, our General said, \u2018don\u2019t talk about what happened here [in Dersim] to any civilian, not even to your mother or father. Otherwise, you will all be hanged.\u2019 I wrote those things and signed them. Now I have begun to fear whether something might happen to me. I asked the doctor to give me back what I wrote. It\u2019s impossible, he won\u2019t give it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oz told the Interior Minister exactly what he had written to his psychiatrist: \u201cI participated in the Dersim operation of 1937-38. I was the bodyguard of my General. There was a lot of conflict with the bandits. Those bandits we caught or those who surrendered we killed, whether women or children. We poured petrol on them all and burned them. Sometimes the General said to pour petrol on them alive and burn them. Yelling and screaming they burned and turned to ashes, the smell of flesh burned our whole nasal passage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oz continued his horrible recollections: \u201cNews came to the General from Tersemek [Dersim]: \u2018Women and children were hidden somewhere steep alongside the river, what shall we do?\u2019 \u2018Kill and burn them all,\u2019 said the General. Two hours later the Lieutenant gave directions. But, no one wanted to harm the children. They didn\u2019t listen to the orders. The General was very angry. We set out with a squad of soldiers. Everyone stood at attention. He began to hit the Lieutenant and the soldiers. Cursing, he said: \u2018bring them all to where it\u2019s flat.\u2019 The women and children, yelling and screaming, wailing and moaning, begged at the General\u2019s feet. There was nothing proper on them or their feet. He had all their hands and feet bound, their mouths gagged with cloth. \u2018Now soldiers, I address you, these Qizilbash [Alevi] offspring are all the bastards of traitors, the bastards of those who killed your friends, and if they grow up they will continue to kill your brothers. They should be exterminated. We eradicated the Armenian offspring. All that\u2019s left are these Kurds and Qizilbash. If you want your children to live happily in this country, you will kill without mercy. The government, our President, gave instructions to raze, burn, demolish. No one will be judged for the things done, I promise you,\u2019 he said.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The General then ordered: \u201c\u2018Everyone will take turns to kill one or two people.\u2019 There was silence in the squad. \u2018Lieutenant, begin, bring two people,\u2019 he said. They brought two children, and he shot them in the head. They both died. When it came to the third soldier, Salih from Diyarbakir, he went to the children and fell in front of them. \u2018My Commander, I can\u2019t do it, I have children too. Children are innocent,\u2019 he said, \u2018these poor things.\u2019 The General said, \u2018you fucking Kurd, it\u2019s your race, that\u2019s why you take pity, isn\u2019t it?\u2019 He shot the soldier in the forehead. He said, \u2018whoever doesn\u2019t carry out the order will end up like him.\u2019 So, everyone started to kill one or two women and children. After each execution, the General himself shot them once or twice in the head to make sure they were dead. Everyone had to do his duty. \u2018Come to me Sergeant [Oz], it\u2019s your turn.\u2019 There were three little girls left. \u2018You take care of them,\u2019 he said. The children were hunched over on the ground and had soiled themselves. They were crying in their ragged state. I looked into their eyes. I killed the three of them. Their eyes pierced my depths. I can\u2019t forget their eyes. 70 to 80 children and 30 women were executed that day. They were all thrown into the waters of the Murat. The river was soaked with blood. Many soldiers prayed for forgiveness. I killed and burned many people, but I\u2019ve never seen eyes that pierced like those of the children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sergeant Oz concluded his letter with the following agonizing note: \u201cHow can I look my children in the face?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Turkish Sergeant Ali Oz, who participated in the massacre of thousands of Alevi Kurds and Armenians in Dersim, Turkey, in 1937-38, wrote a shocking confession about his role in those killings. It is very disturbing to read the gruesome details of the killings. The source of Oz\u2019s letter is the archive of Hasan Salt\u0131k who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4101,"featured_media":774085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3488],"tags":[7518],"class_list":["post-784356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-harut-sassounian","tag-dersim"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}