Erdogan sorry for 1930s killing of nearly 14,000 Kurds

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Turkish PM offers first apology for killings of nearly 14,000 Kurds in the 1930s

By Associated Press
November 23, 2011

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s prime minister has apologized for the first time for the killings of nearly 14,000 people in a bombing and strafing campaign to crush a Kurdish rebellion in the 1930s.

The apology Wednesday by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan comes at tense time for relations between Turkey and its minority Kurds. Erdogan’s government is currently fighting against autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels and despite efforts to seek peace, it says it is determined to crush the rebels if they don’t lay down arms.

The fighting that has killed tens of thousands since 1984 is the latest of several uprisings by Kurds in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast.

Erdogan on Wednesday offered his apology for the killings of 13,806 people in the southeastern town of Dersim — now known as Tunceli — between 1936 and 1939. The apology came after a war of words between Erdogan and the leader of the main opposition party. . . . [More]
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