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Dersim Across Borders: Political Transmittances Between the Kurdish-Turkish Province Tunceli and Europe

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Migration and Social Remittances in a Global Europe

Part of the book series: Europe in a Global Context ((EGC))

Abstract

In this paper the authors show how the Kurdish Alevi and predominant Zazakî-speaking people from Dersim/Tunceli have engaged in the rewriting of their regional history, the protection of landscapes and their sociality. They have often emphasized their differences of religion, language and ethnicity and contributed to a remarkable circulation of political and historical knowledge and transnational practices between Turkey and Europe. The authors follow these activities across borders in order to show how transnational engagement is shaping local transformations in different contexts, regions and nation-states. The examination of transnational, multidimensional, multilevel and multidirectional flows of critique, claims and protests allows rejecting ‘the receiving country bias’ and goes beyond a simplifying migration-development nexus.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Dersim, renamed as Tunceli in the 1930s by the Turkish government, is one of the eastern provinces of Turkey with a Kurdish, Alevi and Zazakî-speaking majority population. Dersim Dernekleri means “Dersim hometown associations.”

  2. 2.

    Report on the hungerstrike of Turkish MPs, http://kurdishdailynews.org/2015/11/22/kurdish-mps-on-hunger-strike-in-nusaybin (last accessed 14 January 2016).

  3. 3.

    The Alevi Bektashi Federation is a national umbrella organisation for Alevis in Turkey. Detailed information is available at http://www.alevifederasyonu.org.tr (last accessed 12 January 2016).

  4. 4.

    Between the 1980s and the early 2000s hunger strikes in Turkey were mainly employed by left-wing and Kurdish political prisoners in order to protest against prison conditions (Ibikoğlu 2010: 79–82).

  5. 5.

    Symbolic hunger strike in Schwennigen, Germany, http://www.nq-online.de/nq_50_33556-28_Hungerstreik-aus-Protest-gegen-Erdogans-Kurdenmassaker.html; in Rheinfelden, Germany, http://www.badische-zeitung.de/rheinfelden/aleviten-in-rheinfelden-demonstrieren-mit-hungerstreik-gegen-die-politik-erdogans--116019621.html (last accessed 13 January 2016).

  6. 6.

    Die Presse, http://diepresse.com/home/panorama/welt/4899155/Aktionismus_Hungerstreik-gegen-einen-neuen-Krieg (last accessed 13 January 2016). Another example is the local Press of Malatya in southeastern Turkey, http://malatyahabersaati.com/sokaga-cikma-yasaklarina-dikkat-cekmek-icin-avusturyada-aclik-grevi (last accessed 13 January 2016).

  7. 7.

    For the debate on the migration-development nexus see Faist (2008), Sørensen et al. (2002) as well as Faist et al. (2011).

  8. 8.

    A massacre which took place in the region of Dersim in 1937/8, resulting ‘in the annihilation of at least ten percent of the population’ (Kehl-Bodrogi 2003: 66), with ‘many more deported to the west of Turkey’ (Leezenberg 2003: 198).

  9. 9.

    Martin van Bruinessen (1994, 1998) classified this massacre as ethnocide.

  10. 10.

    For an analysis of Kurdish hometown associations see Christiansen (2008).

  11. 11.

    Although we are aware of the ambiguity of this separation here we follow the distinction between European and Turkish organisations made by Dersimi hometown associations.

  12. 12.

    A Turkish news portal Bianet provided relevant information that was shared among “activists, http://bianet.org/bianet/bilim/112702-unesco-turkiye-de-15-dil-tehlikede (last accessed 23 January 2016).

  13. 13.

    There were two proposals submitted to the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) by two different Tunceli deputies to change the name of the city from Tunceli to Dersim in 2009 and 2013 which have not been accepted yet. For further information see the TBMM’s webpages, https://www.tbmm.gov.tr/develop/owa/tasari_teklif_sd.onerge_bilgileri?kanunlar_sira_no=72951; https://www.tbmm.gov.tr/develop/owa/tasari_teklif_sd.onerge_bilgileri?kanunlar_sira_no=139259 (last accessed 12 January 2016).

  14. 14.

    For detailed information about the project see, http://www.dersim-tertele.com/index.php/de/ and https://www.facebook.com/DersimTertele/info/?tab=page_info (last accessed 12 January 2016).

  15. 15.

    On the speech in the parliament and its effects see, for example, Milliyet, 12.11.2009 at http://www.milliyet.com.tr/oymen-in-dersim-sozleri-dtp-lileri-gerdi/siyaset/siyasetdetay/12.11.2009/1161094/default.htm (last accessed 3 March 2016).

  16. 16.

    Yaşar Kaya’s letter is discussed at Bianet, http://bianet.org/bianet/toplum/118169-avrupa-daki-alevilerin-de-talepleri-var (last accessed 12 January 2016).

  17. 17.

    CNN Türk reported on these conferences in Turkey, http://www.cnnturk.com/2009/dunya/11/19/avrupa.parlamentosunda.dersim.konferansi/552344.0/ (last accessed 12 January 2016).

  18. 18.

    For information on the Munzur festival see, for example: https://www.facebook.com/events/755917691151033/ (last accessed 14 January 2016).

  19. 19.

    For detailed information on the Munzur Umweltinitiative-Berlin see http://www.freemunzur.de/free-munzur/rettet-den-munzur-nationalpark/index.html (last accessed 14 January 2016).

  20. 20.

    Sabine observed similar cultural and symbolic strategies in Vienna when, for example, Ali Gedik, Şenol Akkılıç and Tanja Wehsely invited the popular Kurdish singer Şıvan Perwer together with the Austrian Croat popstar Willi Resitarits to share music across differences in the most important theatre of the city, the Burgtheater (Strasser 2009: 187–90).

  21. 21.

    https://www.facebook.com/berlinpostasi/posts/741396472658629 (last accessed 23 January 2016).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Sabine Strasser

  2. University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Mustafa Akçınar

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  1. Sabine Strasser
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  2. Mustafa Akçınar
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Humboldt University Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Magdalena Nowicka

  2. Humboldt University Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Vojin Šerbedžija

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Strasser, S., Akçınar, M. (2016). Dersim Across Borders: Political Transmittances Between the Kurdish-Turkish Province Tunceli and Europe. In: Nowicka, M., Šerbedžija, V. (eds) Migration and Social Remittances in a Global Europe. Europe in a Global Context. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60126-1_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60126-1_7

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