The final declaration of the 1937-1938 Dersim Massacre Conference, supported by Dersim Reconstruction Society and organized by Dersim Municipality on May 4-5 2016, was made public. Organizers emphasized the importance of an independent Truth Reconciliation and Justice Restoration Commission composed of lawyers and academics, as well as the announcement of the burial sites of Seyit Rıza, his son and his friends in order to confront the genocide.

Below are the decisions made public in the final declaration:

“- The state should officially acknowledge that with its preparation period in the 1920s, the acts of collective destruction and exile in 1937 and 1938 constitute a genocide as described by the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide;

- A Truth Reconciliation and Justice Restoration Commission made up of independent parties, victims’ families, and lawyers and academics that work on this issue, should be established and provide the data for;

- The announcement of the burial sites of Seyit Rıza, his son and his friends;

- The identification of sexual crimes against women and all other crimes against humanity, and the announcement of all records on the whereabouts of children lost during the genocide;

- The establishment of a civil society platform led by Dersim Municipality for the investigation of the genocide, the recollection of all visual and written records, the foundation of a museum, and the construction of a monument in Dersim regarding the genocide;

- The mapping of all locations that were used as sites of collective destruction and the protection of these locations;

- The restoration of ‘Dersim’ and all other district and village names that were the main target of the genocide for having represented the religious and ethnic identity of the city’s population;

- The publications of the records in the archives of the Turkish Republic, the US, Russia and European countries;

- The removal of the names of people who participated in Dersim massacre from public spaces in Dersim and other cities;

- The termination of efforts such as population exchange into Alevi territories such as Dersim and Maraş, expulsion of Alevis from their lands, and the construction of hydroelectric power plants;

- The termination of efforts that interfere with Alevi faith, knowledge, and religious sites;

- The abolishment of the Directorate of Religious Affairs and mandatory religion courses;

- The removal of obstacles in the way of Kırmancki/Zazaki and its use in mother tongue based education, as it is in the UNESCO list of lost languages;

- The termination of efforts that serve the denial, destruction and assimilation of Kurdish people and the beginning of a peace process that ensures free political representation;

- The lifting of state of emergency carried out through illegal curfews in the region and in Dersim, and the guaranteeing of fundamental rights and freedoms;

- The close collaboration of Dersim’s municipality, civil society institutions and diaspora.”