In Türkiye, President Erdogan's party is deploying all means at its
disposal to destroy the Kurdish resistance. At the end of April, thearmy attacked part of Kurdistan in northern Iraq, targeting the PKK
guerrillas. Other strategies on Kurdish territory in Turkey are put in
place to construct a nationalist discourse favorable to the AKP by
erasing Kurdish existence. ---- Since the creation of the Turkish state
at the end of the First World War, the Kurds have suffered repression
and seen their culture and their rights to express it restricted: sale
of public buildings, destruction of historically and symbolically rich,
closure of associations for Kurdish culture, etc.
In the 2024 local elections, the DEM Party (pro-Kurdish party) emerged
victorious in the southeastern regions and opposition to the AKP
(Erdogan's party) spread to major cities through the through the CHP
(social democratic and nationalist party). These meager electoral
barriers remain insufficient since nothing within the Turkish government
ensures respect for these results. The Turkish state, through the
appointment of administrators instead of elected mayors, or through
aggressive policies of erasing Kurdish culture, always finds a way to
achieve the organization of Kurdish resistance. Land use planning
perfectly illustrates this strategy.
Amed: city witnessing urbicide
Between 2015 and 2016, Amed in Kurdish, or Diyarbakir in Turkish,
considered the cultural capital of Kurdistan, was the scene of violent
Turkish military interventions. They led to the destruction of part of
the historic center, called Sur, and the centuries of history it bore.
At that time, militant youth linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK)[1]rose up, carrying with them into the big cities the embers of an
insurrection for the autonomy of the Kurdish region. . The state
response was bloody, with more than 3,000 people killed and more than
half a million people displaced across the country. In traditional
political bodies, pro-Kurdish mayors affiliated with the HDP party have
been ousted, imprisoned and replaced by administrators under the pretext
of fighting terrorism.
Develop the territory to destroy its memory
Turkish flag on the ramparts of the city of Amed (or Diyarbakir in
Turkish), the symbolic, historical and cultural Kurdish capital: the
atmosphere of a city conquered by the Turkish state.
Elsa UCL (Grenoble)
In three months of clashes, a third of the historic center of Sur was
destroyed[2]. Rebuilding on the ruins, the Turkish government took the
opportunity to impose its choices by standardizing the main avenue, once
a symbol of the multi-culturality of this district. There are meters of
identical shop facades that extend to the city walls, dating from Roman
times, where the Turkish flag flies, reminding us that the territory was
indeed conquered by Turkey. Where homes have been destroyed in Sur,
buildings and living spaces, which are completely different from the
historic homes, are being rebuilt to replace them. Residents were even
forced to leave their homes, bought at low prices by the State which
placed soldiers, police officers and pro-AKP civil servants there, thus
leading to the breakdown of social ties built by the Kurds. Historical
buildings destroyed during armed clashes were rebuilt to serve Turkish
nationalist propaganda: this is the case of the Armenian church which,
upon its reopening, hosted an exhibition celebrating the conquest of the
city by Muslims in 639 , denying the Armenian genocide and the
disappearance of this community of Amed which nevertheless lived there
for centuries in cohabitation with other cultures.
The entrance to Sur is also subject to heavy police control. At the same
time, in other parts of Amed, entire areas are being built for Turkish
military and police forces, demarcated by high impenetrable walls. As
for the city's airport, it is shared between a civil part and a military
part where, throughout the day, you can hear the sound of planes taking
off, a constant reminder of the oppressive control exercised by the
Turkish state . Everything is done to stop the protest.
Heskîf: immerse yourself in history
Another city in Turkish Kurdistan suffered massive destruction of its
heritage and memory: Heskîf, in Kurdish (Hasankeyf in Turkish). The
project to build the Ilisu dam on the Tigris River has been underway
since the end of the 1990s but it took twenty years for the town of
Heskîf to be completely submerged, in July 2020. The Turkish government
defended this project under the pretext of economic development of the
southeastern region, with a Kurdish majority. In fact, it is above all a
geopolitical argument to influence neighboring countries and to suppress
part of the history in the Kurdish region. The historic region of
Mesopotamia is traditionally described as the cradle of civilization.
Various historic buildings indicating continuous human presence for
12,000 years are today under these waters which serve as a reservoir for
the dam. Such as Roman fortresses, bridges dating from the 12th century,
the mausoleum of Zeynel Bey or even historic passages of the Silk Road.
Heskîf is also a city where several cultures have left traces: the
Assyrians, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Ottomans, or even the
Ayyubids and the Artukids[3]. An entire ecosystem was also destroyed
with the completion of this dam. However, social protests, recalling the
vital link between belonging to a territory and the construction of a
common identity, tried to oppose the project in vain. Attempts to reach
out to UNESCO were made but the institution never responded to these
requests, leaving the city to drown in development projects serving the
nationalism of the AKP.
A town (Yeni Hasankeyf which literally means New Hasankeyf) was
recreated a few meters higher and only part of the 80,000 people who
lived in the 180 surrounding villages were relocated there. The others
had to go into debt to buy a new place to live elsewhere, further
splintering the Kurdish community.
Yeni Hasankeyf (in Turkish): the city was moved to higher ground after
the submergence of the historic city, Heskîf (in Kurdish) below.
Elsa UCL (Grenoble)
Syria and Iraq also depend on the Tigris for their water resources, both
for agriculture and for their urban centers. International law requires
the agreement of different countries for the construction of such a
hydraulic structure, but Turkey has not signed these conventions,
allowing it to override and develop its territory as it sees fit. The
Ilisu Dam becomes a geopolitical weapon by allowing control of water
flow. We already see this with the Euphrates where Turkey was able to
put pressure on Syria by reducing the flow. Syria therefore finally
withdrew its support for the PKK and became involved in the conflicts in
the more autonomous region of Syrian Kurdistan[4].
The violence of these state interventions, added to the policies of
forced displacement, have swallowed up the Kurdish heritage to prevent
any social bond from forming on the basis of belonging to the Kurdish
people. In the historic old town of Amed, there remain the Dengbe who
sing the history, life, hopes and violence experienced by the Kurds. In
Heskîf, we will be content with a hypocritical and distorted
archaeological park to remember the history of the city, although it was
drowned by the dam. As libertarian communist revolutionaries, our duty
is to support the Kurdish people who are fighting against the
conservative and reactionary powers that surround them on all sides.
Elsa (UCL Grenoble)
To validate
[1]Pro-Kurdish party, banned and considered a terrorist organization by
Turkey and more generally NATO member countries.
[2]See the article by Loez published by Ballast " In Diyarbakir: erasing
memory and rewriting history " published on 04/01/2021
[3]See the 2018 work of Berenika Drazewska and her article Hasankeyf,
the Ilisu Dam, and the Existence of " Common European Standards " on
Cultural Heritage Protection
[4]See the article by Loez and Camille Marie published by Ballast "War
of water and memories in Northern Kurdistan" published on 01/25/2022
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Kurdistan-turc-Un-controle-du-territoire-par-la-destruction-de-la-memoire
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