A conference was held in Dersim during the 12th Culture and Nature Festival. At the conference Peace and Democracy party provincial chairman of Dersim Þerafettin Halis said that "the Turkish government has been trying to destroy both our religion center and land for thousand years because of Dersim's people tradition of opposition". Halis added that "if a society lost its faith, that society would not protect itself from being destroyed".

The conference was attended also by representative of human right association Barýþ Yýldýrým.

Þerafettin Halis said that in the past the government massacred and banished people but today "it wants to build dams on our lands and Dersim people have been opposing these policies". He said the purpose of that dams is "to destroy our culture and history".

Halis also stressed that "it is very important to study Kurdish" and he suggested people to speak in their mother tongue in the streets at homes so to preserve the work made on language.

Bar of Dersim Lawyers president Fatma Kalsen said that "we are faced with the real danger of destruction. In the nineties they used the evacuation of village policy and now they are using a huge assimilation policy on Dersim's people and to counter this it is important that we team up".