DERSIM, Turkey—Leyla Aglar, daughter of Seyid Riza who led the Dersim rebellion between 1937 to 1938, passed away Thursday in Agdat village of Ovacik county in Turkey. She was 98 years old.
In addition to her children and relatives, officials from the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), Alican Onlu, Edibe Sahir, and municipal co-chairs Nurhayat Altun, Mehmet Ali Bul, attended her funeral with the public.
“She left this world without seeing her father’s grave,” said Altun at the funeral.
“Mother Leyla was moral leader for all of us. The resistance of Seyid Riza was an example for us in this life. We must own their legacy and today we have the honor to make this pledge at her burial.”
Aglar rejected pleas from her relatives to leave her hometown and join them to live in Europe, instead vowing not to leave Dersim.
Aglar was subjected extreme torture during the Dersim massacre and was imprisoned for five years in the stable where the horses of the cavalry Turkish soldiers were kept.
Riza was hanged on November 15, 1937, along with his son in Elazig Bugday square in the ethnically Kurdish city of Dersim in eastern Turkey.
Dersim rebellion was an uprising against the Turkish military's increasing presence in Kurdish areas.
Thousands of Zaza Kurds were killed and internally displaced after a Turkish military campaign that suppressed the rebellion.The Turkish government put the official death toll of civilians at over 13,000 dead. Kurdish sources put the number closer to 60,000.
In 2011, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan apologized for the massacre and described it as “one of the most tragic events of our recent history.”
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