Due to the ethnic homogenization efforts of the newly founded Turkey, many ethnic and religious minorities fell victim to state violence. In this context, a military operation began in 1937 in eastern Anatolia against a group of alleged rebels. Although this group was completely destroyed at the end of 1937, the military operations were extended in the then Ottoman Dersim province. The resident Kurdish-Alevi minority was therefore exposed in 1938 to the disproportionate use of force by the Turkish state. Despite the controversy over casualties during military operations, today at least 13,000 executed civilians and 12,000 forced displaced people are being targeted.
Cayan Demirel made a documentary on this topic in 2006. In this film, the eyewitnesses come up and deliver their experiences of violence. The exiled and forced-adapted children from the then Dersim tell in the documentary their memories of the years after 1938.
In addition to the eyewitness reports from the victim's perspective, numerous established scientists also come to the language and try to classify the events in Dersim historically.