Cover not available
Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 14:2 (2015) ► pp.233–257

‘Saying sorry’ in Turkey

The Dersim massacre of the 1930s in 2011

| Kilis 7 Aralik Universitesi |
| Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin |
Dominant self-complacent national narratives (not only) in Turkey have long silenced past wrongdoings. Among these, the massacre of thousands of Kurds in Dersim during the 1930s, being part of the wider suppression of the Kurdish minority until the present day, is a particularly significant example. However, against the background of an almost global emphasis on recognising past crimes, the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, offered an apology on 23 November 2011. Erdoğan’s unexpected move has been both viewed as an opportunity for a more inclusive understanding of Turkish citizenship, as well as criticised for being a calculated manoeuvre in order to sideline political opponents. In this article, we investigate both this performance and its public reception. Drawing on the discourse-historical approach to critical discourse analysis, we ultimately illustrate how Erdoğan instrumentalised an ‘apology’ for political gain.
Keywords: Age of apology, critical discourse analysis, Dersim massacre, discourse-historical approach, Kurds, political apology, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Collective Identity and the Speech Act of Political Apology
  • 3.The Discourse-Historical Approach
    • 3.2Methodical tools
    • 3.2The historical context: The ‘Kurdish problem’ in Turkey
    • 3.2Situational context: The debate on Dersim
  • 4.Debating Dersim in 2011
    • 4.2Dersim: Erdoğan’s speech
    • 4.2Dersim: Media responses
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 20 August 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.14.2.03efe
References (69)
References
Abadi, Adina. 1990. “The Speech Act of Apology in Political Life.” Journal of Pragmatics 141: 467–487. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Alexander, Jeffrey C. 2006. The Civil Sphere. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Altan, Ahmet. 2011. “Dersim.” Taraf. 18 November. Available at: [URL] (Accessed 6 March 2012).Google Scholar
Austin, John L. 1978. How to do Things with Words. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Ayata, Bilgin, and Serra Hakyemez. 2013. “The AKP’s Engagement with Turkey’s Past Crimes: An Analysis of PM Erdoğan’s ‘Dersim Apology’.” Dialectical Anthropology 37 (1): 131–143. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Aygün, Hüseyin. 2011 “CHP'li Hüseyin Aygün: Dersim katliamının sorumlusu devlet ve CHP'dir” [Hüseyin Aygün of the CHP says: the responsible ones for the Dersim massacre are the state and the CHP]. Zaman. 18 November. Available at: [URL] (Accessed 6 March 2012).Google Scholar
Balci, Ali. 2012. “Üç Tarz-ı AB Siyaseti: Ulusalcı Laikler, Post-İslamcılar ve Kimlikçi Kürtler” [Three styles of politics: nationalist seculars, post-Islamist and pro-identity Kurds]. Birikim, 12.05.2012 Available at:Google Scholar
Barkan, Elazar, and Alexander Karn (eds). 2006. Taking Wrongs Seriously. Apologies and Reconciliation. Stanford: SUP.Google Scholar
BirGün. 2011. “Erdoğan, Dersim özrünü hem içte hem de dışta kullanacak” [Erdoğan will make use of Dersim both within Turkey and abroad]. 25 November. Available at: [URL] (Accessed 06 June 2012).
. 2012. “İsmail Beşikçi: Erdoğan'ın özrü samimi değil” [İsmail Eşikçi: Erdoğan’s apology is not sincere] 25 February. Available at: [URL] (Accessed 18 March 2013).
Brooks, Roy L. (ed). 1999. When Saying Sorry isn’t Enough: The Controversy over Apologies and Reparations for Human Injustice. New York: NYUP.Google Scholar
Celermajer, Daniel. 2006. “The Apology in Australia: Re-covenanting the National Imaginary.” In Taking Wrongs Seriously. Apologies and Reconciliation, ed. by Elazar Barkan, and Alexander Karn, 153–184. Stanford: SUP.Google Scholar
Celermajer, Danielle. 2009. Sins of the Nation and the Ritual of Apology. New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chilton, Paul. 2004. Analysing Political Discourse. Theory and Practice. Oxon: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Andrew D. 1996. “Speech Acts“. In Sociolinguistics and Language Teaching, ed. by Sandra L. Mckay, and Nancy H. Hornberger, 383–420. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, Andrew D., and Elite Olshtain. 1981. “Developing a Measure of Sociocultural Competence: The Case of Apology.” Language Learning 31 (1): 113–134. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cumhuriyet. 2011. “Sırada ‘Ermenilerden Özür’ Olmasın” [Will it not be the Armenian apology next]. 25 November. Available at: [URL] (Accessed 23 March 2012).
Cunningham, Michael. 1999. “Saying Sorry: The Politics of Apology.” The Political Quarterly 70 (3): 285–293. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Cesari, Chiara. 2012. “Libya -The Paradoxes of Colonial Reparation: Foreclosing Memory and the 2008 Italy Friendship Treaty.” Memory Studies 5 (3): 316–326. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
de Cillia, Rudolph, and Ruth Wodak. 2009. “Restitution: Yes, but…” In Justice and Memory. Confronting Traumatic Pasts. An International Comparison, ed. by Ruth Wodak, and Gertraud Auer-Borea, 195–218. Vienna: Passagen Verlag.Google Scholar
Dursun, Çiler. 2006. “The Struggle Goes on: The Discursive Strategies of the Islamist Press in Turkey.” Journal of Contemporary European Studies 14 (2): 161–182. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Erdoğan, Recep, T. 2011. “Başbakan Erdoğan’ın 23.11.2011 tarihli il Başkanları Toplantısında yaptığı konuşmanın tam metni” [The Complete Text of the Speech of the PM Erdoğan to the Local Party Representatives on 23.11.2011]. Available at: [URL]. The speech can be viewed online at: [URL] (Accessed 28 February 2013).
Fairclough, Norman. 1992. Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Fırat News. 2011. “Erdoğan’ın Dersim Samimiyetsizliği – Erdem Can” [The insincerity of Erdoğan about Dersim by Can Erdem]. 24 November. Available at: [URL] (Accessed 24 March 2012).
Forchtner, Bernhard, and Ana Tominc. 2012. “Critique and Argumentation: On the Relation between the Discourse-historical Approach and Pragma-dialectics.” Journal of Language and Politics 11 (1): 31–50. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Forchtner, Bernhard. 2011. “Critique, the Discourse-historical Approach and the Frankfurt School.” Critical Discourse Studies 8 (1): 1–14. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gibney, Mark, Rodney E. Howard-Hassmann, Jean-Marc Coicaud, and Niklaus Steiner (eds). 2008. The Age of Apology. Facing up to the Past. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press.Google Scholar
Giesen, Bernhard. 2004. Triumph and Trauma. Boulder: Paradigm.Google Scholar
Gooder, Haydie, and Jane M. Jacobs. 2000. “‘On the Border of the Unsayable’. The Apology in Postcolonizing Australia.” Interventions 2 (2): 229–247. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Govier, Trudy, and Wilhelm Verwoerd. 2002. “The Promise and Pitfalls of Apology.” Journal of Social Philosophy 33 (1): 67–82. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Halbwachs, Maurice. 1992. On Collective Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Harris, Sandra, Karen Grainger, and Louise Mullany. 2006. “The Pragmatics of Political Apologies.” Discourse & Society 17 (6): 715–737. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heer, Hannes, Walter Manoschek, Alexander Pollak, and Ruth Wodak. 2008. The Discursive Construction of History: Remembering the Wehrmacht’s War of Annihilation. Basingstoke: Palgrave. [URL].Google Scholar
Hürriyet. 2011. “Biz Yüzleşiriz Özrü Sen Dile.” [We Will Face, Dare You Apologise?] November 21. Available at: [URL] (Accessed 28 February 2013).
Internethaber. 2011. “CHP’de Dersim çatlağı giderek tırmanıyor. Nur Serter CHP lideri Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu'na rest çekti.” [The Dersim rift in the RPP is growing. Nur Serter from the RPP challenged Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu]. 24 November 2011. Available at: [URL] (Accessed 6 April 2012).
Kampf, Zohar, and Nava Löwenheim. 2012. “Rituals of Apology in the Global Arena.” Security Dialogue 43 (1): 43–60. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kampf, Zohar. 2009. “Public (non-) Apologies: The Discourse of Minimizing Responsibility.” Journal of Pragmatics 41 (11): 2257–2270. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, Hilal. 2011. “Dersim’den Atatürk’e Giden Yol“ [The road from Dersim to Atatürk]. Yeni Şafak. 25 November 2011. Available at: [URL] (Accessed 6 April 2012).Google Scholar
Kısakürek, Necip F. 1969. Son Devrin Din Mazlumları [The oppressed religious people of the last era]. İstanbul: Büyük Doğu Yayınları.Google Scholar
Kienpointer, Manfred. 1996. Vernünftig Argumentieren. Regeln und Techniken der Argumentation [Rational reasoning. Rules and techniques of argumentation]. Reinbek: Rowohlt.Google Scholar
Kimoga, Joseph. 2010. “Remorseless Apology: Analysing a Political Letter.” Journal of Pragmatics 421: 2181–2188. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kongar, Emre. 2011. “Dersim Tartışmaları“ [Dersim Discussions]. Cumhuriyet. 24 November. Available at: [URL] (Accessed 6 April 2012).Google Scholar
Kress, Gunther, and van Leeuwen Theo. 1998. “Front pages: (The Critical) Analysis of Newspaper Layout.” In Approaches to Media Discourse, ed. by Allan Bell, and Peter Garrett, 186–219. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lind, Jennifer. 2010. Sorry States: Apologies in International Politics. Ithaca: CUP.Google Scholar
McDowall, David. 1996. A Modern History of the Kurds. New York: St. Martin’s Press.Google Scholar
Milton-Edwards, Beverley, and Hinchcliffe Peter. 2004. Conflicts in the Middle East Since 1945. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Nobles, Melissa. 2008. The Politics of Official Apologies. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Olick, Jeffrey K. 2007. The Politics of Regret: On Collective Memory and Historical Responsibility. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ortadoğu. 2011. “Bu kafa PKK'dan da özür diler.” [This mentality would apologise even from the PKK]. 23 November 2011. Available at: [URL] (Accessed 6 June 2012).
Reisigl, Martin, and Ruth Wodak. 2009. “The Discourse-historical Approach.” In Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. Second Edition, ed. by Ruth Wodak, and Michael Meyer, 97–121. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Reisigl, Martin. 2008. “Rhetoric of Political Speeches.” In Handbook of Communication in the Public Sphere, ed. by Ruth Wodak, and Veronika Koller, 243–269. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Renner, Judith. 2011. “‘I'm Sorry for Apologising’: Czech and German Apologies and their Perlocutionary Effects.” Review of International Studies 37 (4): 1579–1597. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sabah. 2013. “Öcalan Süreçte Önemli bir Aktör.” [Öcalan is an important actor within the process]. 28 February. Available at: [URL] (Accessed 28 February 2013).
Somer, Mıurat. 2011. “Toward A Non-Standard Story: The Kurdish Question and the Headscarf, Nationalism, and Iraq”. In Symbiotic Antagonisms in Turkey: Sources, Discourses and Changing Nature of Turkish, Kurdish, and Islamic Nationalisms, ed. by Ayşe Kadıoğlu, and Fuat Keyman, 253–288. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.Google Scholar
Somer, Murat. 2010. “Media Values and Democratization: What Unites and What Divides Religious Conservative and Pro-secular Elites?” Turkish Studies 11 (4): 555–577. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tavuchis, Nicholas. 1991. Mea Culpa. A Sociology of Apology and Reconciliation. Stanford: SUP.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles. 2002. Stories, Identities, and Political Change. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Toulmin, Stephan. 1969. The Uses Of Argument. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Türköne, Mümtazer. 2011. “Başbakan ÖzürDiledikten Sonra…” [After the PM apologises… ]. Zaman. 24 November. Available at: [URL] (Accessed 6 April 2012).Google Scholar
van Bruinessen, Martin. 1994. “Genocide in Kurdistan? The suppression of the Dersim Rebellion in Turkey (1937-38) and the Chemical War Against the Iraqi Kurds (1988)” In Conceptual and Historical Dimensions of Genocide, ed. by George J. Andreopoulos, 141–170. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
van Leeuwen, Theo. 2005. Introducing Social Semiotics. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
. 2007. “Legitimation in Discourse and Communication.” Discourse & Communication 1 (1): 91–112. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2008. Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Analysis: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vatan. 2011. “Dersim'e operasyon yapıldı çünkü…” [‘There was an operation in Dersim because… ’]. Vatan. 24 November. Available at: [URL] (Accessed 23 March 2012).Google Scholar
Vinitzky-Seroussi, Vered, and Chana Teeger. 2010. “Unpacking the Unspoken: Silence in Collective Memory and Forgetting.” Social Forces 88 (3): 1103–1122. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wodak, Ruth, and Gertraud Auer-Borea (ed). 2009. Justice and Memory. Confronting Traumatic Pasts. An International Comparison. Vienna: Passagen Verlag.Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth, and Rudolph de Cillia. 2007. “Commemorating the Past: The Discursive Construction of Official Narratives about the ‘Rebirth of the Second Austrian Republic’.” Discourse & Communication 1 (3): 337–363. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yegen, Mesut. 2009. ““Prospective-Turks” or “Pseudo-Citizens”: Kurds in Turkey.” Middle East Journal 63 (4): 597–615. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yenişafak. 2011. “CHP’de Dersim Kavgası.” [Fight over Dersim in the RPP]. 16 November. Available at: [URL] (Accessed 6 April 2012).
Cited by (6)

Cited by six other publications

Duru, Deniz N.
2024. Problematising the Politics of Recognition and Its Impact on Conviviality: Fixing Ambiguity, Losing Heterogeneity. In Conviviality in Burgaz, ► pp. 205 ff. DOI logo
Duru, Deniz N.
2024. A Diverse Island in a Homogenising Context. In Conviviality in Burgaz, ► pp. 29 ff. DOI logo
Jucker, Andreas H.
2023. Chapter 12. “He offered an apologetic smile”. In Multimodal Im/politeness [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 333], ► pp. 327 ff. DOI logo
Gonsum, Longji Christopher & Çise Çavuşoğlu
2021. Gendered Acts of Face Negotiations in Teacher-Student Interaction: A Linguistic Ethnographic Investigation of Salutation. SAGE Open 11:4 ► pp. 215824402110563 ff. DOI logo
Çelik, Ayşe Betül
2021. Inclusive Citizenship and Societal Reconciliation within Turkey’s Kurdish Issue. Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 21:2 ► pp. 313 ff. DOI logo
Forchtner, Bernhard
2016. The Rhetoric of Penitence. In Lessons from the Past?, ► pp. 111 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.