Duygu Erol- Esra Aydın/ JINHA

AMED – As the 24-hour curfew in six neighborhoods of Diyarbakır’s Sur district continues for a 37th day, residents throughout the area are affected. Resident Songül Kaya said that despite the mortars striking their house, the family will not abandon Sur.

For 27 days, Turkish state forces have imposed a nonstop curfew in the Sur district. Although the curfew has only been declared in six neighborhoods (Cevatpaşa, Fatihpaşa, Dabanoğlu, Hasırlı, Cemal Yılmaz and Savaş), residents throughout the area are affected. As state forces subject anyone entering the district to searches, citizens remain under threat. Several residents have been struck by artillery striking their homes, including Melek Alpaydıncı (recently killed by a shell while eating breakfast) and Mevlüde Ketani (a local teacher whose life is currently in danger from a shell to the head).

As tank shells targeted the Veni Vidi hospital, resident Songül Kaya’s house was also struck by shrapnel. Songül, whose family of seven lives near the historic Great Mosque, said that her family are terrified even to go from one room to another.

“Our children are scared to go outside,” said Songül. “Tank shells fall on our houses and police don’t let us outside. The day we left the house, they came at us with guns,” Songül said that the day the shrapnel struck her house, the family thought an earthquake had struck. She said the family has not been able to leave the house due to police bullets and tear gas, but that although they sometimes can’t find food, they will not abandon their neighborhood.

“I won’t abandon my house or Sur. I won’t abandon my neighbors, because we’re all one,” said Songül.

Songül condemned the state’s plans to redevelop the Sur districtthrough the state housing administration TOKİ.

“We don’t want TOKİ. We want our old Sur: we want the Great Mosque, the Kurşunlu Mosque, the Four-Legged Minaret,” said Songül, referring to the historic buildings of the Sur district that have been severely damaged in the state siege.

“How much further will this torture and cruelty go?” said Songül. “They killed so many children, women and young people. They tortured so many people. How much further will this go? What does Erdoğan want? All we have is our lives, and they take those every day.”

(gc/cm)