Medine Mamedoğlu / Piroz Zırığ

DİYARBAKIR – A notice saying ‘Evacuate your houses’ has been sent to the people living in Dabanoğlu Neighborhood of Diyarbakır’s Sur district and the neighborhood residents are told to evacuate their homes until December. “They came our homes and told us leave your houses. We left our homes once, we won’t leave again,” said Esma Dikçi, who had to leave Sur once.

The curfew, which was declared in the Sur district of Diyarbakır on December 2, 2015, has continued in the district for two years along with demolition. 82% of Sur has been expropriated following the order ‘urgent expropriation’ issued for six neighborhoods of Sur after the clashes ended in the district. Four neighborhoods of Sur were razed to the ground following the demolition started in the district. Now, Dabanoğlu Neighborhood, the curfew hasn’t been imposed on, has been evacuated for the demolition.

Police officers walk around the neighborhood and threaten the residents to evacuate their homes until December 5. In the last two years, about 30,000 have been forcibly displaced in the district and tens of thousands houses have been demolished. As the demolition in the Alipaşa and Lalebey neighborhoods are going on, the number of neighborhoods to be looted has increased to eight along with the Dabanoğlu Neighborhood.

Esma Dikçi is one of the neighborhood residents. Esma had been forcibly taken out from her home in the Fatihpaşa Neighborhood of Sur and now she rents a house in Dabanoğlu Neighborhood. Esma said, “I lived with my children for one month during the clashes broke out two years ago. I was forcibly taken out from my home and street I was born. I left our homes without taking any of our belongings. We moved to Alay Quarter of Yenişehir district. We lived there for several months. But we missed Sur and we returned to our home when the curfew was lifted.”

‘They won’t be able to delete 103-day resistance from our memory’

Emphasizing that not only the history but also the traces of the resistance are being destroyed, Esma said that they cannot delete the 103-day resistance from their memory even if they destroy the traces the resistance in the neighborhood. “I witness every day how my street disappears. I cannot sleep for weeks. They destroyed our memories and our childhood. Everyone, including us, stayed silent against the demolition,” said Esma.

Every day, a house, a family, a street…

Esma doesn’t want to leave the neighborhood. She said the police officers had given them a notice saying that they should evacuate their homes until December 5. Esma said, “Two families are living in the seven-storey building. They came our homes and told us leave your houses. We left our homes once, we won’t leave again. I will stay here no matter what happens. What do so many people do in winter? They are demolishing our neighborhood even if it isn’t in curfew area. A house, a family and a street is destroyed every day. They take our memories from us.”