Mesopotamia Cultural Center to be evicted from its building of 18 years

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The Mesopotamia Cultural Center (MKM) has been ordered to evict the building where it has been located for 18 years in Beyoğlu, İstanbul.

The building will be handed over to the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) Beyoğlu Municipality by the Sub-Governor's Office of Beyoğlu.

Speaking to the Speak Up Platform, MKM artist Hüseyin İldan (Genim), one of the founders of the Koma Çiya music band, has said that even though they won the tender lodged for the reparation works to be undertaken in the building, all of these decisions have been cancelled.

Noting that they have lost the last tender, İldan has said that "they are told to leave the building as they are now in the position of occupiers."

Underlining that the MKM has been engaging in productions and training workshops about the Kurdish culture and arts, İldan has stressed that as they are an alternative platform, they are constantly subjected to pressure. "Though several places were closed by Statutory Decrees, the MKM could survive in some way," he has added.

İldan has also referred to the gentrification underway in the area. He has said that tenants are displaced with different methods such as an amendment introduced to the case law on foundations and by turning the neighborhood into a site of unearned income by increasing the rents.

According to İldan, the MKM building in the Tarlabaşı neighborhood of Beyoğlu used to belong to the Foundations. Then, the rent of the building was increased exponentially. Afterwards, a tender was lodged for reparation works to be undertaken in the building in 2019 and even though they won these tenders, they have been cancelled.

On the other side, Ferit Elalmış, another MKM worker, has said, "We will take our archives and necessary stuff with us for now; but we will then take a legal action about it and file a lawsuit."

About the Mesopotamia Cultural Center (MKM)

It was established by a group of intellectuals and artists, including writer, poet and journalist Musa Anter, sociologist and writer İsmail Beşikçi and artist Ali Temel, in İstanbul on September 27, 1991.

Engaging in Kurdish cultural and artistic works and activities, the MKM has been active for 20 years with a perspective of "free life, revolutionary art."

Producing cultural and artistic works in different disciplines such as theater, cinema, music, folk dances and contemporary dance, the MKM has undertaken the mission of being the voice, language and color of the peoples in Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the Middle East. (AÖ/SD)