YEREVAN. –  Massacre in Dersim in 1938 was also a genocide, said chairman of the union of mutual assistance to Dersim Armenians Mihran Prkich Gultekin.

“Through massacre Turkish leaders tried to resolve the problem of Armenians and Alevis, who were united at that time. The then government underlined difference between Alevis living in the country and the rest Muslims. Alevis of Dersim were named unbelievers,” he said during a discussion in Yerevan.

Dersim Armenians, he noted, experienced the fear of annihilation and genocide twice, this is the reason they still afraid of calling themselves Armenians.

“We can say that the population of Armenians in Van and Mush is larger than in Dersim, but in Turkey, except for Istanbul, the most calm region where Armenians live is Dersim,” he emphasized.

He also angrily added that the so-called historians in Turkey know everything except the events in Dersim.

Turkish authorities destroyed thousands of villages in Dersim. According to various sources, up to 100,000 people were killed during Dersim massacres. Armenians who survived the 1915 Genocide and lived in various villages of Dersim were massacred in 1938.