Seyid Riza

Rıza was born in Lirtik, a village in the Ovacik district, as the youngest of four sons of Sheikh Ibrahim, the leader of the Hesenan tribe. After Ibrahims death, Seyit Rıza, became his successor.[12] During the First World War, he lead the tribe on the side of the Ottoman Empire against the Russians. But he reportedly didn't comply always the demands of the Ottomans and during the Armenian Genocide, he didn't hand over people living in area of influence.[12] He also granted protection to the leaders of the Koçgiri Rebellion and after the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923, Seyid Rıza was a constant theme for the Turkish Government as Rıza maintained a wide-ranging autonomy out of reach for the Turkish authorities for the Dersim region.[12] Following the stipulation of the Resettlement law in 1934, and the Tunceli Law in 1935,[13] Seyit Riza began to oppose the Turkish authorities. According to the Tunceli Law, the Dersim region was renamed into Tunceli province, and placed under the military control of the Fourth Inspectorate General.[14] During the Newroz festivities in March 1937, Seyid Rıza called for a rebellion against the Turkish Government, but by September of the same year, the rebellion was subdued by the Turkish military.[12] On the 5 September 1937, he was arrested with seventy-two other revolutionaries as they were on the way to negotiations with the Turkish government.[12]

Seyid Riza

Seyid Riza was tried and sentenced after a trial. The trial ended after three hearings in two weeks. The final judgement was given on a Saturday, a day which the courts do not work normally. The cause behind it was Mustafa Atatürk's forthcoming visit to the region and the government's fear for a possible amnesty claim for Rıza during the visit.[15] The head judge of the court resisted to give his final decision on a holiday and alleged the lack of electricity at night time and a hangman. After giving the guarantees on lighting the courtroom with car lights and to make ready a hangman, everything was ready for the final stage. Eleven men including Seyit Rıza himself, his son Uşene Seyid, Aliye Mırze Sili, Cıvrail Ağa, Hesen Ağa, Fındık Ağa, Resik Hüseyin and Hesene İvraime Qıji were sentenced to the death. Four of the eleven death sentences was mitigated to 30 years imprisonment sentence.[16] Seyit Rıza was almost 78 years old when the sentence was announced. This made it impossible to hang him. Yet the court accepted that he was 54, not 78. Rıza did not understand the meaning of the judgement till he sees the gallows. His final moments were witnessed by the then by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, İhsan Sabri Çağlayangil:

" Seyit Rıza understood the situation immediately after he sees the gallows. "You will hang me." he said. Then he turned to me and asked: "Did you come from Ankara to hang me?" We exchanged glances. It was the first time I faced a man who was going to be hanged. He flashed a smile at me. The prosecutor asked whether he wanted to pray. He didn't want it. We asked for his last words. "I have forty liras and a watch. You will give them to my son." he said... We brought him to the square. It was cold and there were nobody around. However, Seyit Rıza addressed to the silence and emptiness like the square is full of people. "We are the son of Karbala. We are blameless. It is shame. It is cruel. It is murder!" he said. I had goose bumps. This old man swept to the gallows, pushed the gypsy. He stringed the rope on his neck. He kicked the chair, executed himself. However, It's hard to feel sorry for a human who hanged a boy(Turkish soldier) as young as his own boy...When Seyit Rıza was hanged his sons voice could be heard from the side "I'll be your slave! I'll be your muse! Feel some pity for my youth, don't kill me!." "[17]

In explaining the reason for the Dersim rebellion to the British foreign secretary Anthony Eden he said the following:[18]

The government has tried to assimilate the Kurdish people for years, oppressing them, banning publications in Kurdish, persecuting those who speak Kurdish, forcibly deporting people from fertile parts of Kurdistan for uncultivated areas of Anatolia where many have perished. The prisons are full of non-combatants, intellectuals are shot, hanged or exiled to remote places. Three million Kurds, demand to live in freedom and peace in their own country.

The document, submitted to the Presidency with the signature of Minister of Interior Şükrü Kaya on 18 October 1937, states that this letter was not written by Seyit Rıza but by a person named Yusuf in Syria using her signature.[19]

It is very likely that this letter was not sent by Seyid Riza, but by a Kurdish revolutionary from Dersim who took refuge in Syria, named Nuri Dersimi. He was trying to get support for the Kurdish nationalist cause from Western powers (which he didn't get). The Turkish state used the letter to incriminate Seyid Riza of rebelling against the state but never proved that the letter was written by him. English archives supposedly show that the signature underneath was from Nuri Dersimi.[20]

Seyid Riza was buried in a secret place and its whereabouts is still unknown. There is an ongoing campaign to find his grave.[21] In his latest visit to Tunceli, president Abdullah Gül was requested to disclose the location of the grave of Seyit Rıza and his companions, who were executed back then. "This is not a difficult issue, it is in the state archives." said Hüseyin Aygün a lawmaker from Dersim/Tunceli, representing the province in Turkish parliament for opposition party CHP.[22]

In 2010 in the entrance of the city of Tunceli a statue of Seyit Riza was erected[23] and the park around the statue was named after him.[24]

• Human rights in Turkey