Medine Mamedoğlu/JINHA

AMED - “I stay here alone but the stones and memories keep me alive. 50 years are enough time to not leave here.” These words of 66-year-old Hüsna, who sit in front of her one-roomed home, explain the Sur district of Diyarbakır.

First ask Sur, where smells thousands of years, to the woman, who spend their life, in the town. Mysterious streets have hid thousands memories in the houses on the cobblestone and small windows. The houses, churches, mosques and all historic buildings have been damaged during four months siege in the Sur district of Diyarbakır. However, the memories are still alive. Sur is a mysterious door for whoever visits the town one time. The Prime Minister says, “I want to build houses.” And his cabinet decision for Sur. As the houses, history and culture wait to be demolished with “Urgent Expropriation” decision, women have watched their houses, their life experiences and their future.

The people in Sur don’t want to believe this decision. However, they have begun to believe that when they think about what they have experienced for months. 66-year-old Hüsna Fidan has spent her life in the Lalebey neighborhood. Sur doesn’t consist of doors, windows and walls. She has waited in front of her house since she heard the words, “Sur will be demolished”. If someone comes to demolish Sur, they will find her first.

Hüsna has lived her one-roomed home alone in Lalebey. She said, “If they take my home from me, I will stay in the streets.she has lived in Sur for 50 years. It is easier said than done. She grew up here. She married in these streets. She gave birth here. Hüsna said, “Sur is my life.” And then she continued to talk, “If I leave here, I will lose my identity, I will leave stateless. I have five children, three daughters and two sons. They have lived in Istanbul. I don’t feel alone here with my memories. If they take my home, I will stay in the streets.”

Hüsna moves hardly due to her age. She shares her life with her neighbors. They eat together and they talk to each other their pasts. “If I live alone another place, I cannot live anymore. They said us that they would bomb everywhere in Sur. My sister in law came and we left Sur together. Whe I returned to my home, my door was broken. However, I didn’t move. I built everything again. If someone demolishes my home again, I will build it again. I don’t want my home to be demolished.

“Sur is our home. It is the home of the people. Why does the state demolish it? If the state gives us another house, they won’t be same like here. I stay here alone but the stones and memories keep me alive. 50 years are enough time to not leave here.”

(gc/gd)