Fourth Inspectorate-General (Turkey)


The Fourth Inspectorate-General refers to a regional administrative subdivision in the Dersim region.

History

The Fourth Inspectorate-General is based on the Law 1164 from September 1927, which was passed in order to Turkefy the non-Turkish population. Before, there were established three other Inspectorates-General in other areas. The first in Kurdish provinces in the southeast of Anatolia, the second in Thracia in the western part of Turkey, and another one in northeastern part of Turkey. Following the Tunceli Law of December 1935, which demanded a more powerful government in the region, and also classified the Dersim district from the Elaziğ province into a province named Tunceli, the fourth Inspectorate-General was created in January 1936. The fourth UM span over the provinces of Elaziğ, Erzincan, Bingöl and Tunceli. The focus of the UM was on Tunceli but its seat was in Elaziğ. It was governed by a Governor-Commander in a state of emergency. Most of the employees in the municipality were to be filled with military personnel and the Governor-Commander had the authority to evacuate whole villages and resettle them in other parts. Also the juridical guarantees did not comply with the law in the other parts in Turkey. The trials were at most 5 days long and sentences could not be appealed. For a release, the Governor Commander had to give his consent. The application of the death penalty was under the authority of the Governor-Commander, while normally it would be the authority of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey to approve such a punishment. The first Governor-Commander was, the nephew of Nurettin Pasha, who defeated the rebels who led the Koçgiri rebellion in 1921. Following, to gain more control over the region, military quarters, police stations, schools and also a railway track to Elaziğ were built. Seyid Riza, a local tribal chief, demanded the Tunceli Law to be revoked and tribesmen loyal to him attacked a police station in March 1937 which sparked a strong response from the Turkish Government. The rebellion was suppressed with outmost determination, massacres of the local population were executed and its leaders were hanged. Abdullah Alpdoğan supported the idea, the Kurdish identity would be toppled by telling the Kurds just enough that they were Turks, and stayed in the post of the Governor-Commander until 1943.

Disestablishment

In 1946 the Tunceli Law was abolished and the state of emergency removed but the authority of the fourth UM was transferred to the military. In 1948 the administrative posts of the UM were not to be reoccupied but the possibility of the creation was kept. By 1950 a discussion about the UMs had begun by several members of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Remzi Bucak from Diyarbakir, criticized the UM and compared it to the British colonization practices in India. The Inspectorates-General were eventually dissolved in 1952 during the Government of the Democrat Party who had a different approach to the Kurdish question.