DID SEYİT RIZA REQUEST HELP FROM ASSOCIATION OF NATIONS AND THE UNITED KINGDOM? SEYİT RIZA MİLLETLER CEMİYETİ’YLE BİRLEŞİK KRALLIK’TAN YARDIM İSTEDİ Mİ?

It has been mentioned in many academic and non-academic studies that Seyit Rıza, who was at the center of the rebellion that took place in Tunceli in 1937, wrote a letter to the United Kingdom Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the League of Nations and sought support for the rebellion. In the letters, in summary, the international community is invited to intervene by complaining about the following issues: The Turkish state targeted civilians in Dersim, waged an unjust war, including suffocating gas; Kurds were oppressed, forced to migrate and massacred. Although these two letters have been the subject of many academic and non-academic studies, they have been briefly mentioned and no detailed study has been done on them. In academic studies, the subject is not discussed as a whole, and the views put forward in non-academic studies on the subject have not been discussed with solid sources and justifications. The main research problem of this study is to determine by whom and for what purpose these two letters sent to the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the League of Nations were written. Archival documents, memoirs and current research on the subject are the main sources of this study. In the article, firstly, general information about the letters and their contents is given, and then the discussions about these letters are summarized. Finally, the form and content analyzes of the text were made and it was discussed by whom and for what purpose the letters were written by making use of archival documents and testimonies of the period. As a result of the study, it was concluded that the aforementioned letters were written by Mr. Baytar Nuri unaware of Seyit Rıza and sent to the relevant places.
Keywords: Seyit Rıza, League of Nations, Letter, Aid, Rebellion, Dersim, Tunceli, United Kingdom.