Europe-based Alevi organizations the Alevi Unions Federation (AABF), the European Dersim Associations Federation (FDG) and the European Koçgirliler Union (AKB) released a joint press statement at the AABF headquarters in Cologne yesterday.
In the statement, the groups said that they would apply to the Socialist International (SI) for the CHP’s exemption from the organization. “The CHP is an obstacle in the path of democratization,” the statement said.
AABF Second President Ali Ertan Toprak, Secretary-General Hüseyin Mat, FDG Chairman Yaşar Kaya and AKB President Kudrettin Çimen joined the conference. Their joint statement noted that Öymen had extended a “half-hearted” apology, which they did not find sincere.
“The CHP administration has seen Alevis as a voter base for years, and has made no efforts to meet their rightful demands. Onur Öymen is the representative in our day of Nurettin Paşa the Bearded who administered the Koçgiri massacre [against Alevis] and Nurettin Paşa’s son-in-law Abdullah Alpdoğan who administered the Dersim massacre. Onur Öymen, who has praised the Dersim massacre, should step down as a member of Parliament. Öymen’s crime is not one committed against the people of Dersim and the Alevi community alone, but one against humanity. No person who so openly defends massacres in his country can continue to serve as a parliamentary deputy anywhere in the world. The CHP should apologize to the people of Dersim and all the Alevi/Kızılbaş community both for the massacre of 1938 and for Öymen’s remarks. We, as European organizations, will be making efforts to bring this to the attention of both the European Union, the SI and European parliaments.”
At home in Turkey, more calls asking for Öymen’s resignation came with the Mersin branch of education sector union Eğitim-Bir-Sen joining the long list of organizations voicing this demand. The Mersin branch laid a black wreath in front of the local CHP office. A statement made here by a spokesperson for the group referred to Öymen’s statements as a “dark stain on the history of Parliament.”
Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç also rebuked Öymen for his remarks yesterday, speaking in Adıyaman where he was visiting for the day. “The issue here is about legitimizing incidents that occurred in Dersim in 1937 and 1938. Onur Öymen’s words mean only one thing. ‘Bloodshed should continue, and if mothers cry, let them cry. Because that is what happened in Dersim. This is what we did then, and we want to do the same thing today.’ This is what he said in plain Turkish; there is no need to embellish this in diplomatic language. We now need to see how people with conscience will stand in the face of this.”
Meanwhile, Tunceli-born CHP deputy Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who had earlier called on Öymen to resign but then backpedaled after CHP leader Deniz Baykal’s apparent support for Öymen, released a statement yesterday. In the statement he called on CHP members to be alert against what he called the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and Democratic Society Party (DTP) collaboration, topped with the provocation of the “pro-government media.” He said a “systematic attack” against the CHP was part of the AK Party’s efforts to instill fear across the country and suppress all opposition. He also claimed that the reactions shown by Alevis to Öymen were supported by “foreign forces.”
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