Medine Mamedoğlu\JINHA

AMED – 70-year-old Kine Bilice compared their life before and after curfew declared in Sur. She told us the past and present of Sur. “I miss our old days. Those days fall even further behing, but we won’t forget them. We won’t forget what we saw and faced.” said Kine.

Families those who forced to leave their homes after curfew declared in the Sur district of Diyarbakır don’t forget Sur where they left their memories. Sur people say that they want back their pillaged homes and their life before curfew declared. One of these people is 70-year-old Kine Bilici. When she talked about her two-storey house, where she lived with her grandchildren, and her neighborhood, she turned back those days. She said, “I had lived in my two-storey house without closing windows and door before curfew was declared. Now, months have left behind; we have new home and neighbors; however, we are still looking for the old days.”


Kine talked about the Fatihpaşa Neighborhood of Sur, “All people in our neighborhood were Kurds. All speak Kurdish. Our neighbors were very compassionate people. All of them were helpful; when one cooked something, they sent a portion to their neighbors. Then, bans began… Some people left Sur say that: “A day, we woke up and saw trenches were dug in front of our home.” I didn’t see anything like that in Sur. Digging trenches took days. You cannot say that youth came and dug, every people there were our children. Neighborhood became more active when those children were there. Everyone was happier and more hopeful.


“Then, curfew was declared. First we heard gunshots, then sound of tanks and artillery. Each day people feared more. Each day one relative of people in neighborhood was injured or their home was destroyed. At first, we heard occasional gunshots later we heard them every second. We got used to live between these sounds. One day, I realised that there wasn’t any people in the neighborhood. But, I didn’t want to leave the neighborhood.”


Kine stated that she feels very angry when she watchs news about curfew on television. She said that they only saw what was going on in Sur during curfew, “I was trying to buy bread when Helin Şen was killed in the Fatihpaşa Neighborhood. We resisted inside Sur when self-government declared during the ban. Turkish media said that “terrorists” are killing civilians; however, we were inside and we didn’t see something like that. We were resisted inside.


“I was wounded so I left the neighborhood. Then, I tried many time to go inside Sur; however, they didn’t allowed me. I left everything behind when I left Sur in winter. My “Why” he told me, “You will have heart spasm if you see it.” My two-storey home was demoslihed and nothing left behind from it. We won’t forget the old days. We won’t forget what we saw and faced.”


(ck/mg/gd)