DİYARBAKIR- Platform for Solidarity with Sur reacts to the ongoing demolition in the Alipaşa and Lalebey neighborhoods of Diyarbakır’s Sur district and points out that the demolition will spread to Hevsel and Fiskaya. Member of the platform Benazir Coşkun emphasized that main target of demolition is communal life.

As the curfew declared in the Sur district of Diyarbakır has continued to be imposed in some neighborhood, the demolition in the district is going on. The demolition is also going on in neighborhoods, where the curfew hasn’t been imposed on. Alipaşa and Lalebey neighborhoods are two of these neighborhoods and they have been blockaded and the demolition in these is spreading over a wider area.

While many organizations have visited the people of Sur to support them, in the recent days, the Platform for Solidarity with Sur members came from Istanbul to Diyarbakır to show their support. Prof. Ayşe Erzan, Co-spokesperson of the platform, pointed out that the demolition the blockade in Sur are contrary to the agreements signed by the EU, the UN and all other human rights institutions and Turkey.

‘Target is historical memory’

Ayşe said, “The demolition in Sur wipe out all history and destroy the texture of thousands- year-old settlements. Sur definitely doesn’t deserve the rebuilding process, in which concrete houses will be built. The aim is to destroy historical memory and history.”

‘Mainstream media doesn’t report!’

Stating that a petition launched in Istanbul for Sur, Ayşe said, “We set up tables in the streets and tried to tell the demolition in Sur to the people. They don’t see and know this demolition. Mainstream media and channels don’t report the demolition. They want to cover the demolition in this way. The rights of these people are violated    openly. This issue should be taken to international authorities, because what is going on is against international cultural protection agreements and the right to housing and human rights. In this regard, we should all try to make known all what is going on individualistically or organizationally.”

Another member of the platform Benazir Coşkun mentioned that as platform, they have carried out works coordinately in Istanbul and Diyarbakır for three months. Benazir stated that six neighborhoods of Sur had been razed to the ground and she said, “Sur has seven thousand years old history and it is a cultural heritage site of UNESCO. The demolition wasn’t ended just in six neighborhoods. The demolition will go to other 11 neighborhoods. It won’t be ended in Sur; it will spread to Fiskaya and Hevsel. Thus, the communal life sacrificed to rent will be annihilated.”

Benazir recalled that the people of Sur haven’t left their homes even though they have been left without water and electricity for months. Benazir said they wouldn’t leave the people of Sur alone.