Association of Reconstruction of Dersim President Ali Çatakçın urged the AKP government to make all the archives on Dersim genocide public and to fulfill all requirements of confrontation of the 1937-38 genocide.

Çatakçın stressed that nobody had the right to bury their head in the sand regarding the confrontation of the Dersim genocide.

Releasing a statement following the publication of secret intelligence documents yesterday, Çatakçın stressed that those who disclosed the documents on the subject one by one before every election with an attempt to abuse the issue must respect the victims of the genocide and their relatives left behind them.

The documents published by pro-government Yeni Şafak newspaper yesterday reveal that the execution of Seyit Riza and 6 others after the massacres in Dersim was carried out with the full knowledge of Mustafa Kemal.

"The AKP government ruling the state now is responsible for the past and present. We do not accept the abuse of Dersim genocide as a political material and call on the government to act with responsibility and do whatever is necessary to face up to the past on behalf of the state.", Çatakçın said.

Demanding the disclosure of the burial place of Dersim leader Seyit Riza and his comrades, Çatakçın said this was a must in order for their families to perform the necessary religious ceremony and for the victims to have a grave at least.

Çatakçın highlighted a series of demands, saying: “the state should be able to build an effective apology mechanism in order to ensure that the previous crimes against humanity do not take place once again.

The President of Association of Reconstruction of Dersim underlined that mausoleums and shame museums must be built, the incident must be reflected truly in schoolbooks, the names of adopted children and adopting families must be revealed, all the seized property of people must be given back to their families and relatives, all moral and material damages must be compensated, and before anything else the current pursuance of 1937-38 Dersim policies must be ended.

Remarking that Dersim people are still being forced to displacement by means of cultural genocide policies and assimilation, Çatakçın said; " Alevi belief must be taken under constitutional and legal assurance, compulsory religion lessons must be ended, education in mother tongue must be initiated, construction of dams in Dersim territory must be ended, holy places must be taken under legal protection, and all archives must be made public without being subject to a political abuse."

Çatakçın continued, highlighting the following demands; "The old names of all sites, Dersim being in the first place, must be given back, and all public places must be relieved of the names of the genocide architectures of the time. People must be enabled to settle back in their homeland following a clearance of mined lands and other areas."

He added that; Considering the fact that continuity is a basis for a state, the currently ruling state officials who have failed to take the mentioned steps and politically abused the issue so far continue committing a crime against humanity by not fulfilling their duties. Having this genocide forgotten and using the pains of the people as a political material is a continuation of both cultural and moral genocide. We also announce that will file a criminal complaint against the officials who are perpetrating this."