Dersim Festival Dossier
The Living Spirit of Anatolia: Dersim
Dersimlis and friends of Dersim
The grand meeting of Dersimlis will take place on the 13th of June 2009, in Bonn Germany. This is our grand meeting so do not involve yourselves in other duties. June 13th is the date when friends and fellows come together to rejoice. Come, let us eat ‘Shir’ together, dance dances of Dersim together and experience the resistance of Dersim, even if for a day. The Dersim Federal Association of Europe is working hard to realize an unforgettable Dersim Day in Europe. We are very confident that the number people who attended the 3rd Dersim Cultural Festival and the excitement of the crowds will soar even more this year.
Content
Alas, my mother land
How Sweet/gracious you are
It is impossible for one
To give up beloved mother land
Despite the feelings expressed by one of Dersim’s famous poets about abandonment of our motherland,’ Welat’, unfortunately Dersim remains to be the area that has mass migration. The cause of the first band of migration in 1965 was economical and of the second in 1980 was political. The number of Dersimlis immigrating to Europe during these mass migrations is estimated to be around 200.000. The Diasporal bodies of Dersim have been active for the best part of the past ten years. The 9th meeting of the Dersim Associations, taking place on 28 & 29 January 2006, established The Dersim Federal Association of Europe (FDG), The first congress of the FDG was successfully realized between 10 & 12th December 2006, with the participation of 76 delegates from 16 associations. At present, the FDG have associations active in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands.
With the establishment of the Federation, the idea of a European wide festival flourished. The first Dersim Cultural Festival of Europe took place with the participation of between 5000 -6000 audiences, in Mainz , Germany under the name of ‘Munzur – Rhein Main Kulturfest’. The second festival took place in Russelsheim, with the participation of around 5000 people but unfortunately the festival had to be abandoned due to excessive bad weather. Our third festival which took place on 6 June 2008 in Duisburg was attended by 10.000 people. Our fourth annual festival this year will take place in the Cologne/ Bonn area.
Dersim
90 % of the population in Dersim consist of Alevi Kizhilbash. The multi cultural, multi lingual Dersim has always possessed an original culture. Dersim has practically become the living spirit of Anatolia and the symbol of tolerance and leniency. We want to promote every aspect of the peaceful, humanist and integrative Dersim. We will also be providing the opportunity for other cultures residing in Europe to come together and promote themselves.
Why a Festival
· Dersim Cultural Festival of Europe gets its inspiration from various communities who hold annual events. All communities residing in the US have their own community day and celebrate with promoting their cultures. The 3 day long ‘Turkish Day’ in Berlin, the Alevi events in Cologne and the Jewish day are a few examples of these.
· This festival will be a day where all the Dersimlis from all over Europe will come together and embrace. We plan to reach every Dersimli by holding the festival at different venues each year.
· It will give an opportunity to those born in Europe to experience their parental culture. It will further solidify their sense of belonging to Dersim.
· The wealth of Dersim, its languages, culture, cuisine, music and literature will be introduced to Europeans and it will give opportunity for “Dersim –Europe Camaraderie” to establish and grow.
· It will serve to introduce Dersim in the European arena and become an important tool in lobbying.
· An important part of the German media’s attention will be diverted toward Dersim as a result of thousands of Dersimis coming together in important centres of Europe. On one hand we will gain the opportunity to voice the problems faced in Dersim and on the other it will contribute to the political life here. It will give opportunities to those Dersimis who are politically active candidates in various German political parties to work under more favourable conditions in local, county and national politics.
· It will be a tool in encouraging the Dersimis of Europe to take an interest in their ‘Welat’ and not abandon their mother land.
Reception
An annual Reception will be organized to take place a day before the festival. This year’s Reception will be held on the 12th of June 2009 in Cologne. Guest from the European, National and Provincial Parliaments and the local government will be invited to the event. There will be representatives from FDG, well know Dersimi academics, politicians, writers and businessmen will also be present. This will provide an opportunity for meeting and networking. The guests will then be able to attend the festival the next day and have the opportunity to acquaint with Dersim.
Our Aims
· The music of Dersim
· The literature of Dersim in German, Turkish, Kirmancki and Kurdish ( there will be book stands where writers; Huseyin Aygun, Mursao Areic, Celal Yildiz, Cemal Tas, Hidir Celik, Hidir Aytac, Winfred Eggers, Gulsun Firat, Thorne Thuji, Mehmet Cetin, Tornecengi, Xidir Celik, Mehmet Gulmez, Ali Erenler & Xeyri Dalkilic will autograph their works).
· The cultural wealth of Dersim will be exhibited, such as, Ovacik & the Dams, Duzgun Bava Cemevi, the project of Dersim AS & Pulumur Christian Ude Cultural Centre
· The cuisine of Dersim
· Folklore
· Photo exhibition and the publicising of Dersim
· Handicrafts
· Opportunities will be created for German, Armenian, Greek and Spataussiedler (Emigrant of German origin from Eastern Europe) organizations to hold their stands to publicise their cultures
The Work of the FDG
Our Federation ceaselessly continues with its work around Dersim. Some of these are;
· A petition entitled “ A 70 year old Scar. Where are the graves of our martyrs? “ this was started in conjunction with TUDEF.
· Numerous panels held and television programmes were produced to expose the 1938 Dersim genocide to the public
· The opportunity of studying in their mother tongue was provided to around 150 students. In order to obviate teacher shortages teacher training courses were started and many are continuing still
· The revitalisation of one of the old forgotten traditions of Dersim Gagan . Xeylas and Xizir Cem’s are now performed in Dersimi native language. This year two Cem’s were organised in Dersim, including Nazimiye and Mamekiye. These Cem’s, which were organized in Xizir’s language, are the first of its kind for forty years.
· We worked in conjunction with numerous international organisations, including Gfbv( Society for Threatened Peoples) , in exposing the use of cyanide and the dams as an attack on Dersim
· Setting up an Archives and Documentations Centre
· Dersim continues to search for its lost children of 1938. Thousands of children were forcibly removed from their families and either taken as trophies of war alongside homeless children of Dersim, given up for adoption or put into children’s homes. Despite the 72 year gap, Dersimis continue to search for their lost loved ones. Our Federation records the found ‘homeless children’ while requesting that the Turkish Government disclose the fate of these children.
· A child born in 1938 will now be 72 years old. All the witnesses of the Dersim massacre are almost all dead. One of our main aims is to speak with the remaining witnesses and compile professional interviews and preserve these in the ‘The Archives and Documentations Centre’ and open these to film makers and researchers. There will be no living witnesses left in ten years time. This is the first main problem facing Dersim today. The Federation aims to establish an ‘Akademiya Dersim – Dersim Academy’ based in Dersim to work alongside ‘The Archives and Documentations Centre’ to be based in Europe. All donations will enable us to kick start the establishment of these projects immediately.
Sponsorship
We are expecting the sponsorships to be high this year. Numerous advertisements will not have fitted on the posters; therefore we will only print one advert on the tickets and posters. All other adverts will be published in the Dersim Post news paper and distributed free of charge in Europe. The companies and persons who pay for adverts will be able to claim from tax. The required forms will be distributed in our centres. All advertisement will help in providing new working areas and new opportunities for your business. There are many Dersimis living and working in Europe and are very sensitive to the problems of Dersim. You can also take out adverts with a social content. We recommend that you put the following under your adverts ‘Work to Maintain the Future of Dersim’ and ‘ We Support the Dersim Festival of Europe’.
Those who advertise in large amounts will also be mentioned in our television advertisements and the interactive media.
Posters, Leaflets, Television Advertising and Newspapers
We will be using posters, leaflets and television advertising to publicise the event. If we begin work with immediate affect we will be more successful in setting the agenda and publicise the event with the recognition it deserves.
· 10.000 Special edition of Dersim Post newspaper will be distributed around European.
· 10.000 posters will be printed and distributed around Europe.
· 100.00 leaflets will be distributed.
· One or two television commercials will be aired to publicise the event.
· The event will be broadcast live on a television station
Bobstrs. 6-8
50676 Cologne
English translations provided by Gulusan Senik
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koe munzur 2009-06-04
bonn daki festival için değil mi?festivale çağrı için yayımlanmış bildiri.
