The 83-year-old Ali Dogan became the first person to file a lawsuit, against Turkey’s Presidential Office, for the damages caused as a result of the Dersim (today’s Tunceli) Massacres.    

Dogan, who was eight years old during the Massacres, was severely injured, and now he filed a claim, with a Tunceli court, against Turkey’s Presidential Office, demanding one-million liras (approx. US$ 568,569) as compensation for the damages caused. The court accepted the claim, and a formal letter was sent to the Presidential Office for its response, the Turkish Dunyabulteni website informs.       

Ali Dogan filed this lawsuit following the Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s apology for the Dersim Massacres.

To note, the Turkish authorities had quelled the Dersim uprising with bloodshed and eradicated thousands of villages. In line with different sources, up to 100,000 people lost their lives during the Dersim Massacres.