Beritan Canözer / JINHA

AMED - Azize Albaydancı, who had to leave her house in Sur in the 26th day of "curfew" due to attacks, said, "The ban is continuing even if there isn't any clash. So then, the problem wasn't the trenches, the trenches were an excuse. They attacked with bombs to children and elderly people. All stones of our house dropped on us in each explosion."

While 24-hour "curfew" has been imposed in the Sur district of Diyarbakır since December 2, 2015, the bans are still going on in the district even though the state announced that "Operation is ended" on March 10 in the district. While many people were killed in 99-day attacks, many historical buildings were also damaged. After 99 days, the houses have been pulled down in the town despite there isn't any clash. No statement has been made about why the houses have been pulled down by the authorities until now.

38-year- old Azize Albaydancı, who had to leave her house in Sur in the 26th day of "curfew" due to attacks, said that she hadn't wanted to leave the town until the last day and she stated that there were hundrends of people in Sur when she had left. She also stated that the citizens had to leave their homes due to intense attacks. Azize said, "There were nonstop explosions. Sur is our homeland. They exiled us from our houses. However, that wasn't enough for them. They also demolished everywhere. I hurt so bad in my heart when I saw the demolished Sur. They announced "Operation is ended", however, they are still in the streets. I don't know if they are looking for treasure, collecting corpses or smuggling historical artifacts. But, they have stayed there for a long time and that's not normal. They knew there were civilians in Sur, however, they attacked with artillery. They said, "There isn't civilians in Sur", but there were.

"They attacked Sur for trenches; however, everyone knew that the trenches were an excuse. Now there isn't any trenches why are they still there? So then, the problem wasn't the trenches, the trenches were an excuse. They attacked with bombs to children and elderly people. All stones of our house dropped on us in each explosion. No one sold their house in Sur. No one wanted Sur be demolished. So, they began to demolish Sur by using different paths.

"We felt safe in Sur. All youth were the youth of Sur. They waited behind the positions with their parents. They protected their lands. Their purpose isn't to harm the civilians; they were there for peace and freedom. Other side struck everywhere by targeting the children. Sur resisted to the end."

(gc/gd)