Güler Can/JINHA

AMED - Şerife goes to Sur everyday to see her house, even the state forces do not allow her to see.

Sur is a city, which carries thousands of centuries' heritages and has the biggest walls of the world after the Great Wall of China; 24-hour curfews had been declared in Cevatpaşa, Fatihpaşa, Dabanoğlu, Hasırlı, Cemal Yılmaz and Savaş Neighborhoods also in Gazi Street which is the most popular street of Sur district of Diyarbakır on December 2, 2015. On March 17, the 24-hour curfew had been lifted at Gazi Street and Cevatpaşa Neighborhood and four streets of Dabanoğlu Neighborhood. Buzcular,Buzcular 1, Eski Yoğurt Pazarı and Çiftehan streets of Savaş neighborhood; Orta Karataş street and from Arman street to Bıyıklı Mehmet Paşa street of Dabanoğlu neighborhood.

Sur opens the door of the another world to all people who has lived in Sur for 20-30 years, who were born in or who comes to see the town for a few hours. In this process, women of Sur had to face with expropriation and women respond to forcely displacement policies by refusing to go to TOKİ houses, they rather to stay in tents in front of their houses. 'We won't let them to destroy our homes with machines', they say.

Şerife Gülmez (55) who has been missing her house in Fatihpaşa Neighborhood which is still under 24-hour curfew, she is expecting to see her house, again. She had to move to the Yenişehir district of Diyarbakır with her spouse, children and grandchildren due to ongoing attacks in Sur. Şerife could not warm up with her new house where she has to live with 17 family members. Every day she goes to Gazi Street to look at her house's street but she hasn't been allowed to see her house which she constantly thinking about. Şerife lived in Fatihpaşa for 25 years. This is not the first ntime that she has been forced to leave her house. The first one happened in 1990s, she had to leave her house in the Nurlukuyu (Kurdish: Qercos) village of Mardin's Dargeçit district due to the pressure of the state forces.

After Şerife and her family moved to Sur, she had started to get use to Sur in time. Now she especially misses her times which she spent with her neighbors; how they talk on the entrance of their houses and taking their kids to outside comfortably. 'Nowhere can be like my house at Sur, I'm wondering what happened there so I come here every day to learn what is happened to my house' she said, Şerife goes to see her home everyday with her 5-year-old granddaughter Narin and 7 year-old grandson Yusuf. She wished to go back to Sur and live there as they lived. Lastly Şerife added ' None of us will give our homes.'

(dk/dg)