Is Şırnak one of the 81 cities of Turkey? I am in Şırnak, one of the Kurdish cities that was under curfew for 8 months, between 14 March-14 November 2016 . 70% of the city has been totally destroyed. 8 of the city’s 12 districts do not exist anymore. The streets that I walked on […]
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Turkey, a modern day soap opera
Turkey, a modern day soap opera Last week, I met with my Canadian friend who lives in Turkey. She told me about a Turkish soap opera that she watched that morning. In the soap-opera, the young women gave a bunch of flowers to her mother-in-law. The mother-in-law threw the flowers to the floor and stomped […]
The Kurdish Region Since The Coup Attempt The July 15th coup attempt was a nightmare. Kurds remember the terrible army coups in Turkey. After the army coups, Kurdish people were imprisoned, sustained, killed and tortured. Kurds are against army coups. The night of 15 July 2016, the pro-Kurdish party, HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) immediately condemned […]
I am like Diyarbakır: Grieving, furious, resentful but still, I stand. Last Friday 370 civil society organizations were closed by the government under the allegation of supporting terrorist groups. 50 of these organizations are based in Diyarbakir, in my city. There are associations that support the families who lost their houses during the curfews or […]
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Aaaauuu…. ttttttoooo …. Shooooooowww
Aaaauuu…. ttttttoooo …. Shooooooowww The alarm rang at its usual time of 7:30. I woke up the children and rushed into the kitchen to prepare breakfast. Normally, while preparing breakfast, I would watch news on the TV. This was before the closing of Kurdish TV and alternative media channels. There are no trustworthy media channels […]
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Writing from Diyarbakır under Blockgade
Writing from Diyarbakır under Blockgade Diyarbakır, the unofficial capital of the Kurdish people, has been one of the main locations of armed conflict between the PKK and the Turkish state. Since August 2015, numerous curfews have been declared in the city and its villages, hundreds of civilians have been killed, the center of the 5000 […]