sickpage: Miriam Stanke‘You, River of my Tears’ is the story of Dersim, a remote mountai
sickpage: Miriam Stanke‘You, River of my Tears’ is the story of Dersim, a remote mountainous area of Eastern Anatolia with the Munzur river and valley at its heart. Dersim is the historical heartland of the Kurdish Alevis or Kızılbaş, a very heterodox religious group that has been oppressed and attacked throughout the past centuries and is still fighting for its heritage. The word ‘Dersim’ is closely connected to ‘genocide’ and ‘resistance’ for most Kurds and Alevis in Turkey. Continuous struggles against the state climaxed with the massacre of 1938, where ten thousand were killed by Turkish military. During the second half of the 20th century Dersim also became a melting pot of leftist political dissent and an important centre for several communist movements. Its mountains have served as a hideout for guerrilla groups since this time and still today the region has one of the highest concentrations of military presence in Turkey. -- source link