Ninety-seven villagers remembered on 88th anniversary of Zini Gediği massacre

ERZINCAN, TURKEY — 8 August 2026 — Descendants, researchers and members of the Alevi diaspora gathered this morning at Kılıçkaya village in Erzincan province for the 88th annual commemoration of the Zini Gediği massacre — a 1938 killing that remains absent from official Turkish records.

What happened in 1938

On the morning of 8 August 1938, ninety-seven villagers were rounded up in a converted police station at Kılıçkaya and executed by firing squad at a nearby mountain pass called Zini Gediği. The killings took place in the late phase of the Dersim military operations (1937-38), a large-scale campaign against the predominantly Alevi-Zaza population of the Dersim region.

The massacre appears in no official Turkish record and remains absent from history textbooks. Survivors were deported to Balıkesir and Keşan in western Turkey; the memory of the event passed down through families as a whispered account.

2011: Legal petition

In September 2011, soil erosion brought human bones to the surface at the massacre site. Descendants filed a petition with the Erzincan Chief Public Prosecutor's Office on 9 September 2011, requesting excavation of the mass grave and DNA identification. The petition was rejected. Applications to the European Court of Human Rights followed.

The memorial project

Since 2011, an annual commemoration has taken place at the site each year around 8 August. Journalist Erdal Kılıçkaya, whose family is from the village, has assembled an extensive archive of photographs, videos, documents and written testimonies.

The archive was made publicly available in 2026 at zinigedigi.com. The site includes photographs from commemorations 2008–2018, correspondence with the European Court of Human Rights, press coverage from the period, and written testimonies from descendants including Süleyman Çetinkaya, Ezgi Aslan and İlhami Algor. English and French summaries are available.

A book by Erdal Kılıçkaya on the massacre is in preparation.