‘Humble Price’ for Destruction is 1 Lira

Click here to read the article in Turkish / Haberin Türkçesi için buraya tıklayın

Cudi is one of the neighborhoods of Cizre that have been demolished in the blockade that lasted 79 days. There are bullet marks in all of the buildings on Nusaybin street of the neighborhood. Holes made by explosives like mortar in some buildings, broken window pieces scattered on the street, and metal shutters greet people. Doors of the hotel recently opened, broken windows, coffee tables scattered around can be seen through “open” windows. Health center on the street is in the same condition. Racist slogans have been written on almost every building’s walls, and flags have been planted on their roofs.

Even though clashes have taken place in the neighborhood about 100 meters away, all houses “got their share”. I am trying to talk to people standing in front of the buildings before getting into interior areas. They all say, “There is no damage in our house, the rearwards houses are entirely demolished”. One of the apartment residents want to show his flat. Fire was opened on metal made entrance door, we enter the apartment through broken door.

Garbage houses

There is no electricity nor water in the apartment. We go up to the third floor thanks to light of our phones. There are garbage, furniture, dresses and an abysmal smell of trash at stairs and corridors. Metal doors of the houses on all floors have been broken down. “Messages” have been written on the wall with caution. JÖH (Gendarmerie Special Operation) in one of the messages said, “Failure Lesson Taken from Means Success”. It also didn’t forget to say “Do not Host Them for a Clean Future!!!”.

Inside the house is a mess, you don’t know where to step on. Bathroom is in a horrible condition. Garbage bags have been stockpiled in some rooms. The bathroom is not very different either. Furniture are scattered all around.

The man I am walking around with says, “We picked up underwear from the living room”. He found some of his stuff at the apartment’s corridor or on some other floors.

Upper floors introduce no different view than the one we saw on third floor. But since the houses on the upper floor see interiors of Cudi neighborhood, frontiers have been set by drilling the walls.

“What kind of a hostility is this?”

According to the man’s statement, almost all of the residents are state officers. They have left Cizre when curfew started. They have started to return when the curfew is lifted. They look at the houses impossible to live in and go back.

The man is nervous, sad, surprised. “We need to clean and disinfect the houses”, the man says. He makes some calculations, first he says “it costs at least 3,000 (940 euros)”, then corrects himself sourly: “I need to spend at least 5,000 to return the house to its original state”. He looks at the miserable view in horror and shock. “You broke in, saw that there is no one inside, why did you turn the house into this?” As he keeps talking, he asks it in circles: “What kind of a hostility is this?”

Notes on walls

You will eat at the house you broke into, use its bathroom, break the cover of the washing machine maybe just for fun, ransack the house, then you will write a note and pin it on the wall…Seriously, what sort of a psychology is this?

One of the figures writing the notes introduced himself and people with him as “We are Mujahideen of Asakir-i Mansure-i Muhammediye army of REPUBLIC OF TURKEY”. Asakir-i Mansure-i Muhammediye is the name of the army established by Mahmud II who abolished guild of janissaries, and means Muhammed’s armies that gained victory. One indeed cannot help but ask. How has this army revived and what is it doing in Cizre?

Is this army’s skill to burn people in the basements, exhibiting naked bodies of women, and discipline a whole society by beating children?

Is spray paint one of new equipment of this army’s members as there are racist and threatening writings on almost every wall of the city?

How can this army attack on civilians’ house with such impunity and destroy everything?

The person writing the note didn't fail to mock: "In exchange for staying in the house for duty, I leave its humble price". Indeed, I got curious about the "humble price". "They left 1 lira", the man said. I believe it goes without saying that he wasn't laughing while saying that.

Peace, hope, joy of living

The host sees me being sorry for the house. “There is no problem with us” he says to console himself and me. “There is no undamaged house left at the backside of the neighborhood”. I told him that I saw the view there.

Then he slowly speaks. It is not clear whether he is talking to me or himself. “The houses are gone, furniture are gone. That is fine, houses can be rebuilt. But, our youngster are gone too, they will never come back. How are we going to forget it?”

Might of the state has massacred peace, hope, joy of living in Cizre. We witnessed ferocity and the anger grown by this ferocity. How are we going to forget it?” (VE/HK)