Turkish oppositionist says Erdogan, Armenian Diaspora’s mentality similar

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s active involvement in a debate over the 1938 Dersim killings is a reflection of his underlying intention to discredit the legacy of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey’s main opposition leader has said.

“Your intention is to settle scores with Ataturk, to dispose of the Republic. We are aware of that,” Kemal Kilicdaroglu said at the parliamentary group meeting of his Republican People’s Party (CHP).

Kilicdaroglu spoke shortly after Erdogan said he would disclose documents exposing the CHP’s role in a military crackdown on a 1938 Alevi rebellion in Dersim, now Tunceli, in which thousands perished.

Erdogan challenged Kilicdaroglu, himself an Alevi from Tunceli, to face up to his party’s responsibility for the killings which took place at a time when the CHP ruled Turkey in a single-party regime, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

“The Prime Minister and Armenian Diaspora are pretty similar in their mentality,” Kilicdaroglu said, noting he won’t be surprised to see Erdogan introduce Genocide issue in Turkish parliament agenda.

Dersim Massacre is a name given to the violent suppression during the Dersim Rebellion in the summer of 1937 and the spring of 1938 of the local population of Dersim, now called Tunceli Province (in Turkey). Tens of thousands of Alevi Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks and others were killed and thousands more forced into exile.

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