Abstract
This research seeks to study the post-conflict urban transformation projects in the historical centre (Suriçi) of Diyarbakır/Amed, the biggest Kurdish city in Turkey. The armed conflict between the Turkish Army and the Kurdish movement erupted in 2015 in seven cities in South-eastern Turkey and ended a year later in 2016. In these cities, significant parts of the conflict areas were urgently expropriated and demolished while remaining restricted by police and the army for a long time. An array of urban policies and development projects were initiated and implemented, aiming to redesign and reconstruct the city for the economic and social benefit of the Turkish state but also to limit and oppress the Kurdish movement. This research examines how urban planning policies become tools of power and sovereignty in the urban space in addition to spatial strategies of dislocation and dispossession introduced by warfare, focusing on Suriçi, Diyarbakır’s old centre. Surrounded by a Roman fortress ...
This research seeks to study the post-conflict urban transformation projects in the historical centre (Suriçi) of Diyarbakır/Amed, the biggest Kurdish city in Turkey. The armed conflict between the Turkish Army and the Kurdish movement erupted in 2015 in seven cities in South-eastern Turkey and ended a year later in 2016. In these cities, significant parts of the conflict areas were urgently expropriated and demolished while remaining restricted by police and the army for a long time. An array of urban policies and development projects were initiated and implemented, aiming to redesign and reconstruct the city for the economic and social benefit of the Turkish state but also to limit and oppress the Kurdish movement. This research examines how urban planning policies become tools of power and sovereignty in the urban space in addition to spatial strategies of dislocation and dispossession introduced by warfare, focusing on Suriçi, Diyarbakır’s old centre. Surrounded by a Roman fortress and enlisted as a cultural heritage monument by UNESCO, Suriçi comprises of historical buildings that have been severely damaged or demolished and were replaced by new constructions. The case study area was populated in the last decades by Kurdish lower classes and consists of 15 neighbourhoods. Since the end of the armed conflict in 2016, the urban fabric has been violently eradicated in almost half of the Suriçi area and shaped anew. The widened avenues and new building blocks built on top of the old narrow alleys and neighbourhoods are dedicated to commercial land uses, thus transforming the area into a tourist park. The urban transformation projects in Suriçi have displaced the previous residents and deprived them of their houses and properties by turning the area into a profitable field for private and public investments. As will be analysed in the following chapters, the conflict sparked in late 2015 in seven big cities in Southeastern Turkey. Unlike some other war-torn cities like Nusaybin and Şırnak, this case study involves a historical monument and thus the potential of extracting value from the area that was demolished and later developed. The case study of Sur is a very different one, and the corresponding outcomes of this thesis should not be generalised; however, they should be examined and processed thoroughly in order to (possibly) identify common patterns with similar cases where the tool of urban reconstruction is used as a very powerful and deeply political instrument to shape the social structure of the city anew. The research includes a fieldwork study that took place in Diyarbakır (in 2019 and 2022). The methods employed during the fieldwork include interviews (thirty in-depth semi-structured interviews), personal observations and informal discussions, as well as collection of data like policy reports and maps. In addition, the methodology also employs spatial analysis methods such as analysis of spatial registry and (aerial and in-field) photo observation supported, on-site architectural observations, as well as analysis of policies and legal documents (master plans, regulations, declarations of party representatives, parliamentary minutes, supplementary reports and literature). This thesis aimed, through a deeper examination, the transformation projects in Suriçi affected in multiple ways the collective memory, the social, political, economic, cultural, and historical life. While financial gains and imposing control appear to be the primary two aims of the transformation project, the discursive and visual representation of the ‘rebranded’ Sur and the planned projects with their security and assimilative objectives illustrate a desire and anxiety for pacification. The undisclosed master plan for the re/de-constructed area leaves the long-term future development uncertain and creates grey zones of informal negotiations and political leverage. The new Sur is being transformed into a tourist park through violent demographic shifts. The deregulated legal framework has escalated prices, resulting in permanent displacement. The project reflects a case where catastrophe presents financial opportunities for the upper classes and reveals the complex interplay of class divisions, Kurdish identity, colonialism and spatial hegemony.
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