Serhildan


The word serhildan describes several Kurdish protests and uprisings since the 1990s that used the slogan "Êdî Bese" against Turkey. Local shops are often closed on the day of demonstrations as a form of protest.
Protests are held every year on 15 February, the date of Abdullah Öcalan's capture, and during Newroz on the 21 March, the Kurdish New Year.
The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has thus far refused to acknowledge the demands of the protests, calling them a conspiracy by an alleged Ergenekon-PKK axis.

Etymology

The word serhildan consists of the Kurdish Kurmanji words ser that means head and hildan that means raise. So the meaning is "rising" or "rebellion". In Zazaki the word for "rebellion" is Serewedaritiş.
The word Serhildan is sometimes translated as meaning the '''Kurdish intifada.

History

After the large Kurdish rebellions in the early to mid 20th century - the Koçkiri rebellion, the Sheikh Said rebellion, the Ararat rebellion and the Dersim rebellion - the first of a series of violent actions by the populace against police officers and state institutions in modern times occurred in 1990 in the Southeast Anatolian town of Nusaybin near the border with Syria. The rebellion in Nusaybin marked the beginning of what is sometimes called the serhildan. During the following days the riots expanded to nearby Mardin and to the neighbouring provinces of Batman, Diyarbakır, Siirt, Şanlıurfa and Şırnak. Later they also took in other Eastern Anatolian provinces such as Bingöl, Bitlis, Hakkâri, Muş and Van, as well as cities such as Ankara, Istanbul, İzmir and Mersin.
Since the major riots in 1990 rebellions sometimes occur sporadically, especially after the killing of PKK fighters, around 21 March or on 27 November. Riots began again at the end of November 2009 and continued without interruption until mid-December. Rioters were protesting that the prison cell of Abdullah Öcalan on İmralı island was too small. Following the closure of the Kurdish party DTP on 11 December 2009 the situation worsened and cost three people their lives. A 23-year-old Kurdish student was killed by a police officer in Diyarbakır. The other two were killed by a shopkeeper in Bulanık after his shop was pelted with Molotov cocktails by the rebels. About 50 people were injured in the riots and over 100 people were arrested.

Timeline

1990–1999