Diyap Ağa represented Dersim in Turkey’s first Grand National Assembly. Parliamentary records reveal his support for Ankara, proposals for local government and services, and arguments about political unity.

Diyap Ağa, wearing a patterned turban and long white beard, seated at right beside Mustafa Kemal in an open carriage
Diyap Ağa with Mustafa Kemal, photograph catalogued as 1921. Unknown photographer; public-domain image reproduced through Wikimedia Commons. This view shows them seated together in a carriage. [6] Photo: unknown photographer, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.

A Dersim leader in the first Assembly

Diyap Ağa, also written Diyab Ağa and later associated with the surname Yıldırım, represented Dersim in the first Grand National Assembly,1920–1923. The Assembly’s 2022 biographical album dates him to 1846–1935, places his birth at Ekrek/Gözlüçayır in Çemişgezek, and records his arrival for parliamentary work on 14 November 1920. [1] Sertel and Akyel link him to Ferhatuşağı and the Şeyh Hasan ocak, while noting conflicting earlier biographical entries. [2] The album’s dates are used here with that disagreement acknowledged.

The 29 November 1920 reform proposal

With Hasan Hayri and Mustafa Bey, Diyap presented proposals addressing misgovernment, hunger, education and abuses by local power holders. They sought a separate administrative unit, a bridge over the Murat and a road to Hozat, schools and affordable land distribution using Ziraat Bank credit. Their proposals also assigned administrative roles to tribal chiefs. [2] Reform therefore included strengthening local leadership as well as expanding services. Referral to ministers should not be confused with proof that the programme was implemented.

What the 3 November 1922 record actually says

On page 347 of the official proceedings, the chair allows the elderly, unwell Dersim deputy to speak during discussion of the Lausanne delegation’s policy. Diyab emphasizes common religion, kinship and brotherhood, supports the delegates, and argues against division between Turks and Kurds. [3] This is a political appeal made in a specific parliamentary debate. It is neither a demographic survey of Dersim nor evidence that everyone in the region shared one political programme. His religious language also matters when interpreting a speech sometimes reduced to a modern nationalist slogan.

Proposals continued in 1923

Sertel and Akyel record a 19 February 1923 proposal for a separate Dersim liva and 8 March proposals for public works, education funding and roads. [2] These were legislative requests and committee referrals. They give the deputy’s work a more concrete shape than an unsourced claim that he personally renamed Dersim or secured every reform he requested. The 2022 album subsequently records service in the Elazığ provincial council and standing committee in 1926–1930. [1]

A speech, an interview and later remembrance

Songül Kayar’s 2025 study discusses both the famous refusal to move the Assembly to Kayseri and a 27 July 1931 Yeni Gün interview attributed to Enver Behnan Şapolyo. The interview’s assertion of Turkish identity belongs to that later newspaper account, not to an additional sentence in the 1922 transcript. [4] Kayar’s portrayal of Diyap as an Alevi community role model is itself a later interpretation. Keeping these contexts visible allows readers to distinguish documented parliamentary wording, reported recollection and commemoration.

The later chronology of Dersim

The parliamentary album records death at Divriği in 1935 and burial at his home village. [1] Metin Tuncel dates the law creating Tunceli province to 25 December 1935, a separate administrative event from the 1920 proposals. [5] The 1937–1938 violence in Dersim occurred after Diyap’s death. His support for Ankara can be assessed historically without inventing his participation in those later events or treating subsequent policies as the automatic result of one deputy’s speeches.

Sources and further reading

  1. TBMM, Birinci Dönem Milletvekili Albümü 1920–1923 (2022), p.263: Diyab Ağa; biographical record.
  2. Savaş Sertel and Salih Akyel, I.TBMM’deki Dersim Milletvekilleri ve Faaliyetleri (2015), pp.304–306, especially biographical footnote 30 and proposals. Author-posted text.
  3. TBMM Zabıt Ceridesi, termI, volume 24, sitting 132,3 November 1922, p.347: Diyab Ağa’s speech; primary parliamentary proceedings.
  4. Songül Kayar, Alevi Toplumunun Rol Modeli: Diyap Ağa, NİYAZ special issue (2025), pp.173–188, especially 179 and 182–184; later accounts and remembrance.
  5. Metin Tuncel, Tunceli, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi 41 (2012), pp.378–380: provincial and urban chronology.
  6. Unknown photographer, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and Diyap Ağa, catalogued 1921; Wikimedia Commons, public domain.