People in Dersim view Besê Hozat’s peace stance as a historic and powerful step for the Kurdish Freedom Movement.
The new process in Dersim, contrary to the black propaganda spread by Turkish special warfare structures and the paramilitary forces active in the region, has been met with strong interest and widespread support.
Despite their concerns, the people we spoke with in Dersim expressed clear trust in the Kurdish Freedom Movement and emphasized that they believe the movement knows exactly what it is doing. While they repeatedly underlined their confidence in the movement, they also openly voiced their concerns, criticisms, and expectations towards the local Kurdish political leadership.
In Dersim, a city home to one of the largest Kurdish Alevi communities, which the Turkish state has long targeted and sought to weaken, people say they are able to live their faith and identity more freely today thanks to the Kurdish Freedom Movement and its nearly five decades of guerrilla resistance.
Trust in the Kurdish Freedom Movement
Ali, a lifelong resident of Hozat, said that when Abdullah Öcalan issued his call on 27 February, it was first met with surprise. “The first thing we thought was, ‘What will happen to us now?’” he said. He emphasized that many in Dersim, including himself and those around him, immediately recalled the massacres and acts of genocide that began after the disarmament in 1938 and have continued in various forms ever since.
However, as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) released further statements, Ali said they began to better understand the process. He noted that in towns like Hozat and Ovacık, many homes had Medya TV on, and people were closely following the developments and statements through the channel as well as through social media.
Ali also pointed out that while people did attend recent public meetings organized by the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), the speakers failed to explain the process in a clear and satisfying manner. He believes that this lack of clarity contributed to the confusion and hesitation felt by some.
Indeed, uncertainty persists across much of Dersim. In the villages we visited, many people still had questions about the process and how the Kurdish Freedom Movement came to such a decision. At the same time, a significant number of people are trying to understand and answer those questions on their own.
Black propaganda over deaths fails to take hold
The announcement of the deaths of Ali Haydar Kaytan and Riza Altun, both originally from Dersim, came in the wake of the 12th Congress of the PKK and was soon followed by a wave of black propaganda. Claims circulated by paramilitary groups, the Turkish special warfare apparatus, writers affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and former PKK members alleged that “Kurdish Alevis are being purged from the PKK” and that “Ali Haydar Kaytan was executed.” However, these narratives have failed to gain traction among the people of Dersim.
In Dersim, where many of the Kurdish Freedom Movement’s earliest cadres originated, locals have repeatedly voiced their belief that the delayed announcement had a reason rooted in revolutionary trust and responsibility.
Persistent attempts to fabricate tension between the PKK and the Alevi community have remained ineffective, largely due to the people’s refusal to engage with such rhetoric. Many continue to express that they see the Kurdish Freedom Movement as a source of assurance and hope for their future.
The impact of Besê Hozat
The images of the PKK burning its weapons, widely recognized as the most significant step in the new phase described by Abdullah Öcalan as the “Peace and Democratic Society Process”, have had perhaps the strongest resonance in Dersim, more than anywhere else in Kurdistan.
Among the Kurdish Alevi community, which has faced state repression and massacres and views the guerrillas as a guarantee of its survival, the sight of weapons being burned was met with mixed emotions, including sorrow. At the same time, the fact that the ceremony was led by a guerrilla unit under the leadership of Besê Hozat, a native of Dersim, and her composed, determined presence during the event, had a profound impact on the people.
In Hozat especially, many said that this bold step toward peace, led by Besê Hozat, carries deep symbolic weight. There is near consensus that the decision to place her at the forefront is itself a major victory for the Kurdish Freedom Movement.
Those we spoke to emphasized that having a Kurdish Alevi woman from Dersim, someone whose own family lived through the 1938 Dersim Massacre, lead such a momentous act without surrendering, without handing over weapons, but by burning them in defiance, represents not submission but a rebellion. In their view, this was a powerful rejection of the state’s decades-long pressure on the Kurdish Alevi community in Dersim, and above all, a declaration of victory.
