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Several towns in Southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdistan), Sur and Silopi among others, were ramsacked by security forces over long periods of curfew, and thousands of persons were forced to leave their homes.
During the “mopping up operations” as the AKP government likes to call destructions and massacres, we were not the only ones raising questions about Sur’s future, for example. Knowing that the BTP, “urban recycling”, is an important sector in the Turkish economy, and a flourishing source of corruption, we could easily imagine the bargain shaping up. For behind each project no matter how big or small, one can see the tentacles of policies of “progress” based on “profit”, even if this means destroying nature, historical and protected ones or, quite simply, living spaces and all the local life surrounding them. Under each stone lifted for a construction site, we find the same businesses close to the government operating as sub-contractors or, through the intermediary of public bodies, benefiting from financial arrangements designed to maximize profits. Combining “ethnic cleansing” with profitable heavy construction work in the East is also a favorite governmental ploy.
Already bit everywhere in Turkey, under cover of “urban recycling”, entire neighborhoods, notably in Istanbul, are emptied of their inhabitants, razed, reconstructed, then turned over to gentrification… Through a process called “urban renewal” the social exclusion of the popular classes and of ethnic minorities is taking shape in Istanbul. Sulukule, the historical neighborhood of the Roms is a tragic example of the veritable demolition enterprise combined with a policy of acculturation and of “smoothing out” the urban landscape.
And this, despite the struggles of the inhabitants, of non-governmental organizations, despite warnings from architects’ and urbanists’ corporations, despite their many proposals for other “rehabilitation” solutions that would safeguard the architecture, the existing social life, the traditional inhabitants and the soul of these neighborhoods.
Now, it’s the turn of destroyed Kurdish towns in the Southeast. The ploy is as big as a house!
The final phase in the operation, after destruction comes pillaging : expropriation
Following a request by the Ministry of the Environment and Urbanism on March 16 2016, an urgent decision to expropriate was taken by the Cabinet on March 21 and published in the Official Gazette on March 25 2016 .
The neighborhood bears the name of “SUR”” (Wall) for this historical site is located intra muros.
A historical birthplace, part of UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage, it contains many locations that must be protected. Dengbêj Evi (the house of the dengbêj, a traditional Kurdish singer), Cemilpaşa Konağı, (the hotel of Cemilpaşa), Hasanpaşa Hanı (Hasanpaşa Inn) are but a few of the historical sites. The Dicle Fırat Cultural Center, Sur City Hall, along with several other public and civilian spaces are among those touched by the pillaging underway.
We note that end of December, while Sur was a battleground and its buildings were being damaged, the Bar Association of Diyarbakır, and the MHD (Association of Jurists of Mesopotamia) had called upon UNESCO. “The protection of the walls (sur) in Diyarbakır and of the buildings intramuros are under humanity’s responsibility. We urgently call on you to take precautionary measures for the safeguarding of Sur, listed on the World Heritage Site, of its buildings, its history, its population, before the situation reaches a point of no return.”
UNESCO did not respond…
Expropriation of 82% of the neighborhood
In Sur, following the decision , 6.300 parcels of land out of 7.714, or 82% of the neighborhood marked in red on the map, will be expropriated. This involves 10.846 homes, churches, buildings, hotels, commercial premises… As for the section marked in blue, it covers those parcels of land already expropriated. Goal : 100% !
Following the expropriation decision, architects, urbanists, and progressive historians sounded the alarm :
“This is nothing other than a cultural and social genocide !”
Şerefhan Aydın, President of the Diyarbakir Chamber of Architects announced an exceptional meeting, the decision of which was brought before the courts.
Right now, all the dynamic actors of the town are in shock. We attempted to obtain details on the decision ? Is this any way to behave ? Most of the parcels of land involve cultural, religious, and social venues, an Art Center, City Hall. A decision taken on high is being carried out with no consultation whatsoever. Despite the presence of urban forces, corporations, civilian organizations, none of the work is being done with them. We will open a legal case on this issue.
Şerefhan Aydın adds :
When we spoke about “profit”, we were told how can you know that. Well now, it has come to light. The expropriation decision also covers private properties and they will be offered to allies [of the AKP]. We consider this to be an initiative of destruction of an existing living space and culture. It is a social and cultural genocide. With their promoters, they will destroy the cultural and social fabric and install another.
Let us recall that, while Sur was emptying of its inhabitants, while its streets and homes were wrecked and bloodied, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, announced the government’s intentions with the words : “We will rebuild Sur in such a way that it will be like Toledo.”
Şerefhan Aydın also specifies that, despite the declared aims of the “operations”, the bans continue.
Entrances and exits are denied, controlled by concrete walls [installed in the beginning of March]. Inside, public works engines are deployed. We don’t know what they are doing, only the administrations attached to the Prefectorate are in the know. If military operations are ended, why can we still not go back?
During the sieges, the emergency centered on the victims, of course. Priority was given to alerting on the ongoing massacres, and denouncing their genocidal “orientation”. But even then voices were raised to uncover the “plans” for these neighborhoods. What could be more efficient than to combine the dispersal of populations, the destruction of their living spaces with an ethnically inspired gentrification, in order to “colonize” territories one cannot keep under military control for decades still ? What could be more efficient than combining that with cement mixers, mass tourism in the “new Turkey”, and investments for « modern consumption ». We don’t doubt there will be a “new mosque” in the mix. No doubt the regime will seduce certain parts of the Kurdish bourgeoisie that already voted for it… The original resisters can go scatter elsewhere.
All this is reminiscent of an old policy well known in the Middle East. This policy can only reinforce the opinion, among the Kurdish population, that it is a policy of “colonization”. We are far from a federalist project of shared living spaces.