New report on the destruction of large parts of the 7000 years old city (Suriçi) of Amed (Diyarbakir) in North Kurdistan by the Turkish state since the beginning of 2016.
The Turkish state attacked Suriçi in a large military operation in Dec. 2015 and destroyed systematically after the end of armed fights in March 2016 around one third of the old city which is the buffer zone of the World Heritage Site “Diyarbakir Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape” since July 2015. The aim of this destruction is the change of population demography as well as financial benefit from a new commercialist-touristic reconstruction approach which does not care at all of local people.
The report has been written two months ago and does not include the ongoing displacement attempts of thousand people of Suriçi in the non destroyed parts. They are in these days resisting state oppression. The report is part of the World Heritage Watch (WHW) Report 2017. WHW is a NGO which does advocacy work for a stronger civil society role in the protection of World Heritage Sites.