DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — Five years after intense street fighting between the Turkish army and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) drove Diyarbakir families from their homes and destroyed the historic neighbourhood of Sur, dozens of residents were given the keys to new homes this week, but they are not happy with the design or the price.

“I swear to God, our previous house in Diyarbakir was much nicer. There are no signs of the ancient style in the new designs,” said Mohammed Shah Ergin, walking through his new home.

The fortified city of Diyarbakir, on the banks of the Tigris River, was an important centre throughout the Hellenistic, Roman, Sassanid, Byzantine, and Ottoman periods. Its fortress was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 2015. The Sur district lies within the protected buffer zone within the ancient city walls.

In July 2015, when peace talks between the PKK and Turkish state broke down, Sur became a battleground. Some 24,000 residents fled and nearly 7,000 houses were completely or partially damaged during the conflict that raged until March 2016, according to Amnesty International.

The government is now restoring the ancient walls and rebuilding the destroyed neighbourhoods. Mehmet Karaaslan, head of the reconstruction and urbanization department at Diyarbakir's metropolitan municipality, said they hope the restoration of Sur will boost tourism.

"We have a tourist target of 5 million within the cultural triangle of Diyarbakir, Mardin and Sanliurfa by restoring the walls, which are the heirlooms of our ancestors," he told the pro-government IHA news outlet in late April.

On May 3, 28 new houses in Lalebey and Ali Pasha neighbourhoods of Sur were handed over to their owners. Another 155 houses have been built in the Dabanoglu and Ozdemir neighbourhoods and 506 more houses and nine motels are currently under construction, Nurullah Bilgi, mayor of Diyarbakir told Rudaw on Sunday.

Birsen Guldali was not happy with her new home. "My house was historical. The courtyard was so big. The courtyard and walls were all historical since they were made of basalt," she said.

She was also shocked by the price. The new homes are subsidized, but not free. They cost about 850,000 lira. Owners must pay this, less the value of their original house, in installments. Guldali said her home was valued at 400,000 lira.

“Where should I find this money? Where did my land and house go? Where am I supposed to find this huge amount of money to pay them? They did an injustice to us. They oppressed us,” she said.


Reporting by Mashalla Dekak
Translation by Zhelwan Zeyad Wali
Rudaw