Alevis, Sunnis, Kurds, Turks brothers in Turkey: PM Yıldırım

TUNCELİ

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Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has said that Alevis, Sunnis, Kurds and Turks are brothers in Turkey, adding that all citizens in the country are “first-class.”

“Alevis, Sunnis, Turks, Kurds and everybody are brothers in this country. This country is sufficient for everyone. All of our citizens are first-class ones. There are no second-class citizens in Turkey and there never has been,” Yıldırım said in the eastern province of Tunceli on March 23, while adding that the government did not and will never allow “anyone’s heart to be broken.” 

“We know that many injustices and wrongdoings took place in the past. This land is one of those that know it very well. We cannot know how big the pain the Dersim incidents have caused on the people living on this land was, but our grandfathers and elders suffered from it,” he said, referring to the Dersim killings of 1938, when the Turkish military staged an operation in the province to quash an apparent Kurdish tribal rebellion.

Criticizing the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) over the killings, Yıldırım said the party’s leader, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, was afraid to “even mention the name of Dersim.”

“We are saying that those after us shouldn’t go through these. The one-party CHP rule at the time said Dersim was the source of trouble. They destroyed all citizens here, dropped bombs on them and executed them by increasing their ages. Now, when we tell Kılıçdaroğlu, ‘Criticize yourself, let’s bring Dersim and the savageness experienced in Dersim on the country’s agenda again with self-criticism,’ he becomes afraid to even mention the name,” he added.