WAN - The scars of the 1930 Zîlan Massacre, in which thousands of people were killed in Geliyê Zîlan remain vivid to this day. Born 20 years after the massacre, Fehime Zeylan recalled the trauma of gathering human bones as a child and asked, “How can we ever forget such brutality?”

 

Located in Erdîş (Erciş) district of Wan, the Zîlan Valley (Geliyê Zîlan) witnessed one of the darkest chapters in history in July 1930. Forty-four villages in the region were set ablaze, followed by the mass killing of thousands of people. While some sources estimate the death toll of the Zîlan Massacre at 15,000, testimonies from survivors and historical research suggest that more than 40,000 people were massacred. Those who survived the massacre endured far more than the struggle to stay alive, many were forced to live in hiding for years. Others were imprisoned or exiled from the lands where they had been born and raised. The devastation of Zîlan left behind not only countless losses but also a deep collective memory and trauma that has been passed down through generations. 

 

 

Fehime Zeylan (76), who lost 17 relatives in the massacre, was born about 20 years after the atrocity. Yet from an early age, she grew up listening to stories of the immense tragedy endured by her family and the people of the region. Today, she continues to live on the very land where her family members were massacred. At the age of 10, while gathering herbs with her friends on the Odaxeybê Plateau, Zeylan came across the bones of relatives who had been killed before she was born and gathered them. Although she was too young to fully understand the significance of that moment, she never forgot what she witnessed that day or the atrocities that had taken place. 

 

‘WE GREW UP LISTENING TO THESE STORIES’

 

Now 76, Fehime Zeylan said: “Seventeen members of my family were killed in the Zîlan Massacre. My father-in-law was one of the survivors and eyewitnesses. He lived in hiding for years and endured relentless state persecution. He saw his mother and siblings killed before his eyes. All of this happened before we were born, but we grew up listening to these stories.” Stating that the massacre was aimed at eliminating the Kurdish presence in the region, Fehime Zeylan said the atrocities committed could never be forgotten, even after a century. Fehime Zeylan asked: “Even when a person loses a chicken, it causes them grief. But here, thousands of people were massacred. Seventeen members of my family were killed. How could I ever forget that pain? They left neither people, nor animals, nor homes in this region. They looted everything. Yet we returned, and we are still here, we continue to live on this land. We will never forget what was done to us. How could we ever forget the brutality inflicted on these lands?”

 

Recalling that she was only 10 years old when she and her friends went to the massacre site to gather wild herbs, Fehime Zeylan said: “I was just a child. One day, my friends and I went to the site of the massacre to gather herbs. As we were doing so, I came across human bones lying out in the open. They belonged to people who had been killed in the Zîlan Massacre. I gathered them. One of the skulls I found belonged to my sister-in-law Halil. Her hair was still curly as it had been when she died, and it had not decomposed. I gathered all of the remains with my own hands and buried them. I was only a child, but in that moment I understood what had happened there. I wasn’t afraid, because what we had been told was even more horrifying.”

 

‘VILLAGERS WANTED TO COVER THE SITE WITH STONES’

 

“The villagers were building stone walls to cover the site of the massacre” Fehime Zeylan said and continued: “They found the bones I had buried. I told them that I was the one who buried them and asked them to take the remains back to the same place and cover them again. They washed the bones and buried them where they had been found. I was 10 years old at that time, and I buried those bones with my own hands.”

 

‘WE CANNOT FORGET’

 

Stressing that the massacre has never been forgotten, Fehime Zeylan said: “This massacre cannot be forgotten. Those who carried it out and those responsible for it were never held accountable. The massacre must never be forgotten. I am 76 years old, and I have never forgotten it, nor will we ever allow it to be forgotten. Our entire lives have been marked by pain and repression, and we cannot forget.”

 

MA / Zeynep Durgut-Bilal Babat