JINHA

AMED – In the city of Silvan, where police imposed a 12-day curfew, resident Şahide Şenkaya was forcefully removed from her home by police destroying her neighborhood. Şahide spoke about why she refuses to abandon the town.

In Silvan, a largely Kurdish town in Diyarbakır province (in Turkey), police held a reign of terror for 12 days recently in the Tekel, Mescit and Konak neighborhoods. Over the course of 12 days, homes and businesses were burned, demolished and raked with bullets. Attackers opened fire on mosques while shouting "God is great," then turned them into operations centers. Polis broke down residents' doors and windows, invading the houses and destroying them.

Over the course of 12 days, the town—in the words of residents—turned into Kobanê. In the wake of the attacks, in which eight residents lost their lives, those entering the neighborhoods have encountered unbelievable scenes. There is almost no home left intact in the Tekel and Mescit neighborhoods, but many residents insisted on remaining in their homes.

One of those residents was Şahide Şenkaya, who declared that she would not abandon her house of eleven years and her native soil.On the final day of the curfew, police forcefully dragged Şahide from her home. Police also harassed and destroyed the home of her mother and father, who live alone.

"I kept trying to get permission to take them out, but they [the police] refused," said Şahide. "My father didn't want to leave his home, either. He would say, 'If young people are dying, I'll die too; I'm worth no more than them.'

"They waited in one room for 11 days, hungry, thirsty, without electricity. They would burn gas to stay warm," said Şahide. Her mother and father were in that room when the police came in and took over the house. First they ate the food; then they tore up the house. Şahide, noting that the home was riddled with bullets and holes left by mortars, asked, "Don't you have any conscience? What did you want from these poor people?"

Şahide said that the people of Silvan had lived with the cruelty of the state for years.

"The streets we walked on every day are now in ruins," said Şahide. "They went as far as going into the mosques and leaving them in ruins. Enough; we don't want the state or the police here. They've gone so faras to decide they want poor people's crumbs of bread.

"Do they think that by doing this, they'll get people to leave?" said Şahide. "They claim there are no civilians here, then they come into civilians' houses and tear them down, and burn them. They even stole from many people's houses." Şahide herself only left her home when police violently removed her. Now, she says she won't abandon Silvan.

"I can say that we won't get up and leave—not our land, not our homes, not Silvan," said Şahide. "We were born and raised here. We had our pain and our happiness here. We won't leave the land of our history."

(bc/sg/gc)