Mustafa Muğlalı was an officer of the Ottoman Army and the general of the Turkish Army

Turkish Army

The Turkish Army or Turkish Land Forces is the main branch of the Turkish Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The modern history of the army began with its formation after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire...

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Killing 33 Kurdish People

In 1943 Muğlalı 33 Kurdish villagers in a barrack located in Van's Özalp district, where they were executed by firing squad orders from Gen. Muğlalı. The general was eventually convicted of the murders and later died in prison, but in 2004 the military barracks in the district where he killed his victims were named after him. The incident dates back to July 1943, when a group from the Kurdish Milan tribe, a community that resides in Iran, crossed the Turkish border and smuggled some livestock out of the region. The smugglers were not captured during the ensuing gendarmerie operation, but gendarmes arrested 40 people residing in Özalp who were related to the Milan family that had smuggled the livestock out. Following court proceedings, the court released 35 suspects but put five under arrest on charges of alleged involvement in livestock theft. Despite the court's order for their release, 33 villagers, including a woman and an 11-year-old child, were executed by firing squad. At the end of the following investigation, Muğlalı was given the death penalty on March 2, 1950, which was legal at the time. However, the Military Supreme Court of Appeals overruled the initial court decision and the sentence was commuted to 20 years in prison. He died of a heart attack on Dec. 11, 1951 at the age of 71. Kurdish poet Ahmed Arif's “33 Bullets” is an elegy to the victims of the tragedy.

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