Ararat Kurdish revoluation 1927

Ararat Kurdish revoluation 1927 – 1931 the Zilan Massacre

According to the author of the book Agri Kurdish Rebellion and the Zilan Massacre, published in 2010,

19 June 2012
The noise of a small river running over stones and an occasional birdsong are the only sounds that seep into the rural valley of Zilan. Few are aware of, or even remember that in July 1930, the same valley bore witness to unprecedented slaughter.

Mehmet Tastan, 94, still vividly remembers the fateful day that a simple trip to deliver food to his father working in the fields turned into a nightmare he barely managed to survive.

"They [the soldiers] rounded people up in Kunduk valley. People were being killed with rifles and machine guns. I wasn't able to do anything, I could only watch what went on from afar," Tastan told SES Türkiye. "We weren't guilty of anything. Even at this age, I don't know why; I can't understand why that many people were killed."

An understudied and largely undisclosed chapter in Turkey's history, little light has been shed on the devastating Zilan Massacres, which were carried out in response to the Kurdish uprising in Ağri province in 1930.

At Zilan, systematic killings of Kurdish men, women and children were followed by imprisonments, exile of whole families and villages to western Turkey and property confiscations.

From the founding of the republic to 1938, Turkey faced 18 revolts, 17 of which occurred in eastern Anatolia; 16 involved Kurds. Along with the Sheikh Said Rebellion (1925) and Dersim (1937-38), the events surrounding Zilan were one of several acts of violence directed against the Kurds during the early years of the Republic as the state sought to consolidate control.

Eighty-two years after the destruction of 44 villages and the deaths of 15,000 Kurds according to official records, and 47,000 deaths cited by local sources, efforts are being made to raise awareness of Zilan.
Dersim, in which at least 13,000 Kurds were killed.According to the author of the book Agri Kurdish Rebellion and the Zilan Massacre, published in 2010.