Dersim Massacre

A cleaning staff member was killed in the early hours of Wednesday December 23 when a mysterious bomb explosion caused damage at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport while another was wounded. Details regarding the bomb explosion at 2 a.m. are still being investigated and the cause of the explosion remains undetermined, according to a written statement issued by Pegasus Airlines.

Mr. President said, during a fast-breaking (iftar) dinner which he transformed into a political one, ?We need a coalition that should deal with today?s problems, not with the debates of the past.? 

A construction project on the uninhabited Yass?ada, a small but infamous island located off the coast of Istanbul?s Asian side in the Marmara Sea, was officially started on May 14 in a ceremony with the participation of the prime minister.

It started a week ago when Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu challenged Devlet Bahçeli, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), to go and say in the eastern province of Tunceli the same words he said in Parliament about the 1937-38 suppression of an uprising there.

Turkey’s main nationalist leader was forced to cut short a controversial visit to the eastern Anatolian province of Tunceli (Dersim) upon protests from residents infuriated with his remarks declaring their ancestors who participated in a rebellion as “terrorists.”

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli is set to pay a visit to the eastern province of Tunceli on Nov. 28, but a number of NGOs have reacted negatively to the intended visit, declaring Bahçeli unwelcome in the city. 

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş has stepped into the ongoing debate over the massacre of thousands of people in the Eastern Anatolian province of Dersim, today called Tunceli, in 1937-38.