DATE=1/5/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=TURKEY / KURDS
NUMBER=5-45172
BYLINE=AMBERIN ZAMAN
DATELINE=DIYARBAKIR
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
///// ED'S: THE FINAL OF THREE REPORTS ABOUT THE
SITUATION IN TURKEY'S LARGELY KURDISH SOUTHEASTERN
REGION. /////
INTRO: As a bloody 15-year Kurdish separatist
campaign begins to wind down, local officials are
seeking to exploit the huge potential for tourism in
Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast. Amberin Zaman
reports from Diyarbakir on a project to restore the
city's ancient walls.
TEXT: They are dark and they are exotic. They are
majestic, yet strangely comforting. Diyarbakir's
ancient walls have long been the pride of what is the
largest and most populated city in Turkey's remote,
largely Kurdish southeastern region.
The walls extend for more than five-kilometers,
including various imposing fortresses and elaborate
gates and storage chambers. Historians and
archaeologists say Diyarbakir's walls are the second
longest in the world, after the Great Wall of China.
Diyarbakir University Professor Halil Degertekin is at
the forefront of efforts to restore the walls that he
says date back more than five-thousand years.
/// ACT DEGERTEKIN, POOR AUDIO QUALITY, ESTABLISH AND
FADE UNDER ///
Professor Degertekin says the city walls are very
important and very big. He says there are many
important carvings on the walls, fortresses and gates.
He adds that many civilizations lived here, including
the Romans, the Byzantines, and the Arabian and
Persian cultures.
Esma Ocak is from one of Diyarbakir's most prominent
families and among the leading patrons of the
restoration project. Mrs. Ocak says she remembers
being terrified as a child when city officials would
blast away parts of the fortress with dynamite because
the claimed the walls blocked winds which could help
cool the burning summer temperatures.
/// ACT OCAK, IN TURKISH, FADE UNDER ///
Mrs. Ocak says the practice only ended after a French
archaeologist, Albert Louis Gabriel, who was touring
Diyarbakir in the early 1930's, managed to convince
the authorities that they were destroying one of
Turkey's most precious historical monuments.
Mrs. Ocak says that decades of neglect have further
damaged the walls, with large sections literally in
ruins. The problem grew during the 15-year separatist
rebellion led by guerillas of the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers Party, known as the P-K-K.
The violence, which has claimed nearly 40-thousand
lives scared away Western tourists. With the tourism
industry virtually dead, no effort was made to
preserve the walls.
To make matters worse, villagers displaced by the
fighting began erecting makeshift homes using slabs of
concrete pulled away from the walls. Others used the
walls for support, simply building their homes against
them.
The Diyarbakir government donated 20-thousand dollars
to help restoration work, which began in earnest last
year. The city leaders say the families need to be
moved, especially since part of the project involves
planting gardens on either side of the walls.
Cezair Serin is the mayor of Diyarbakir's Surici
district, which is the oldest part of the city
surrounded by the walls. He says about one-thousand
families have built homes along the walls.
/// ACT SERIN, IN TURKISH, FADE UNDER ///
Mr. Serin says life for the displaced villagers living
along the walls is terrible. They have no running
water, or sewers. Yet, Mr. Serin says that unless the
government comes up with alternative accommodation for
the villagers, he will not allow them to be kicked out
of their homes.
Hatun Gedikoglu is an old Kurdish woman who lives in a
concrete shack only five-meters from the wall. She
says she is terrified that her home may be destroyed.
/// ACT GEDIKOGLU, IN KURDISH, FADE UNDER ///
Mrs. Gedikoglu says with no where else to go, she will
simply stay on here.
Local officials agree that they need to provide
accommodation for the people if they are to be moved.
Officials are studying a proposal by Mayor Serin to
donate land where he says the city will build new
homes for the displaced. Mayor Serin insists that not
only will they be much better homes, but they will
also be free for those displaced as the work begins to
restore the ancient walls of Diyarbakir. (SIGNED)
NEB/AZ/GE/RAE
05-Jan-2000 08:45 AM EDT (05-Jan-2000 1345 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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