JINHA

AMED – Inside the historic walls of the city of Diyarbakır, historic buildings, churches and mosques have been riddled with bullets over the course of a two-day police siege.

Barely two months have passed since the city of Diyarbakır celebrated the declaration of its historic city walls as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was with good reason that the Diyarbakır-born poet Ahmed Arif compared the city, with its historic houses made of black basalt, to “the springtime.”

Start walking from Dağkapı (the “mountain gate” into the city) and you will find yourself in the narrow, impoverished streets of the Sur district—Diyarbakır’s old city. Barefoot children cross the road as an older man gathers discarded belongings in his cart. Small groups sit on stools discussing politics over tea, while others gather around the shoeshiners at the corner. A woman heads to the spice shops with her shopping basket. The smell of spices and dried plants rises from every shop on the main avenue, where across the street you can see the crowded Grand Mosque.

Further along, you’ll find the Hasanpaşa and Sülüklü caravanserais; the churches of Mother Mary and Surp Giragos; the Four-Legged Minaret; and hundreds more of the historic structures that lie within the city’s thick black walls. At the end of your walk, you will reach another of the four gates to the city. Here, the walls overlook the green Hevsel Gardens—also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the city’s ancient source of produce along the Tigris River.

For the last month, this ancient district has been under a state of near-constant police assault. Most recently, security forces declared a round-the-clock curfew for two days on Sunday and Monday. Police blockaded 16 neighborhoods for two days until popular outcry led police to withdraw. Over the course of the last month, several important historical landmarks have been left destroyed or riddled with police bullets here in the Sur district.

The Fatih Pasha Mosque, also known as the Lead Mosque, was built between 1516 and 1520 and has been left in ruins by police attacks. Dozens of bullets have opened large holes in the mosque walls. Nearby, the Surp Giragos Armenian Church, recently restored by the Armenian community, has also been damaged. Explosions blew out the church’s windows and bullet holes riddle the exterior walls of the structure. Several other historic homes and buildings were raked with bullets or burned and are now unusable.

Local people are angry that security forces positioned snipers on the mosques of minarets and the towers of local churches. Worshippers coming to the Lead Mosque related that they were horrified by the damage, and said that attacks against a mosque were unacceptable. Church staff reported that locals have been left without a place of worship after the attacks.

(ny-ha/gc/cm)