Social engineering in Dersim (Tunceli) from Late Ottoman to Early Republican Period

Tunceli is a structure built on Dersim with its administrative, economic and social pattern. Many studies defending and criticising the official narrative on this process have been and continue to be made. In fact, it is even possible to see thesis studies that are sometimes integrated with current political processes and go beyond the academic framework. This thesis, which aims to contribute to such a dynamic issue, focuses on the transition from Dersim to Tunceli and analyses social engineering and the processes leading to it from an ethnographic perspective. For this reason, based on a number of concepts, it was observed how an ecosystem in which various socialities coexisted and were transitional was classified, extracted and included in the melting pot, from its social structure to its individuals, in order to integrate it into the central authority and the nation. In addition, the social, political and economic structures of the Dersim tribal population were also analysed. Thus, it was observed that the tension between the Dersim tribes and the central power, which evolved from the Ottoman Empire to Turkey, turned into a struggle for sovereignty over time, and even in the traditional period, the centre tended to become more direct. Hence, it became clear that the central power's problem with Dersim was structural before modernisation, and that even the analyses of modern times were related to traditional continuities. Of course, the continuities and breaks in perceptions and practices towards Dersim are widely recognised today. However, it is not possible to say that the results related to practices are sufficiently crystallised in the form of specific problematics. One of these problematics is the migration dynamics of the city. Although there are a number of studies on the subject, the approach of this thesis is to consider the historical and structural background of the processes that encourage migration more. This is because the physical and ideational order environment established as a result of the perceptions and practices regarding the region has led to results that isolated the people from Dersim but did not or could not fully include them in Tunceli. This situation not only stimulated physical migration, but also has an ideational aspect due to the partial alienation and the becoming out-of-place it created spatially. Consequently, this thesis argues for an example of an "evacuation city" that has automatised the exclusion of its own population due to social engineering processes, albeit it is not clear whether this is intentional or not.