JINHA

AMED - Bahriye Maza, who lives in the Sur district of Diyarbakır, said, "Sur is the heart of Diyarbakır, the people who live here is conscience of Diyarbakır." Bahriye said she doesn't know what expropriation means. Bahriye said, "Padishahs had tried to take Sur for hundred years, but they couldn't. Does the person who flames with "the presidential system" take Sur? We will resist like these walls. I won't sell a stone of Sur and its history to millions. Sur is my heaven."

Sur is the center of many civilizations with traces of dozens of civilizations and a much-lauded legacy of pluralism. Jews, Muslims and Christians, Persians, Arabs, Armenians, Kurds and Turks have all made their mark in the Sur district of Diyarbakır. Every civilization presents its culture by combining with previous cultures to new generations as "Open-air Inscriptions Museum". The current residents of Sur describe the town as "My heaven".

This historical and cultural heritage place has been blockaded for four months by state forces. The town has been gone to wrack and ruined by state forces by using tanks and artillery. The churches have been brought down in ruins. Bloods of killed people are in the streets now. Women, who are a bridge to history and hand the cultures from generation to generation, were killed in the town and their bodies have been found under debris. The history, culture and historical artifacts have been shattered like the bodies of women.

The walls of Sur were built to protect themselves against the enemies and they have protected the town since year 349 BC. Sur has resisted against cruelty, barbarism, exploitation, assimilation and genocide like before. Women, who haven't left their lands against this oppression and massacre, ask that, "How can people desist from their homelands, their past and memories?"

Bahriye Maza, who lives in the Lalebey neighborhood of Sur, had been forced to leave her house by state forces. She said, "Sur is the heaven of mine and my family. We were far away from here for two months. Our life was in a mess that time. Fortunataley, I returned here, but if I have to leave again here, they will have to take my dead body out of here.

"We had to move to Bağlar. We moved our house there, but we returned to Sur every morning. We stayed there two months. My husband got sick there. When the ban had been declared here, we said that we wouldn't have left here even if they killed us. However, state forces forced us to leave our house. I grew up here, my childhood passed here. I want to grow up my children in Sur. However, the state doesn't allow that. The state is trying to taking us from our home. The people in the Bağlar neighborhood have no neighborhood relations and solidarity. I want my children to live here between good people.

"Padishahs had tried to take Sur for hundred years, but they couldn't. Does the person who flames with "the presidential system" take Sur? We will resist like these walls. I won't sell a stone of Sur and its history to millions. Sur is my heaven."

(mm\dk/gd)