MESOP EXCLUSIV (III) : DAMAGE ASSESSMENT REPORT ON SURİÇİ, THE OLD TOWN OF DIYARBAKIR

 Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality  – Department for Cultural Heritage & Tourism

 Report Date: October 7, 2016  –  DAMAGE ASSESSMENT REPORT   1 SURİÇİ REPORT DİYARBAKIRDAMAGE ASSESSMENT REPORT  – 2 SURİÇİ REPORT DİYARBAKIR

The Fortress and inner city of Diyarbakır and the adjacent Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape have maintained the importance of the city for thousands of years because of its strategic location between East and West boundaries. The city has kept many different cultures and also “engraved” them into its fabric. The city, which has been the heart of many civilizations and states in time, had been the regional capital (center) of the empire in the periods of Persian, Roman, Sassanian, Byzantine and Islamic empires because of its geopolitical importance. On that sense, the city is a World Heritage Site with multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-layered structure. The religious architectural structures consisting of its original civil architecture, mosques, the churches and the public buildings such as inns and traditional baths are the cultural assets of the city which can be seen in the urban conservation area.

In Suriçi District, there are total 595 registered structures; 147 of them are the models of monumental, and 448 of them are models of civil architecture. Suriçi District was registered as “Diyarbakir Urban Conservation Area” in 1988.

The “Diyarbakır Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape” UNESCO World Heritage nomination studies have been gone on since January of 2012. At the same time, “Field Management Plan” was prepared with the relevant institutions, organizations, NGOs, scientists and the headmen of the city in observance of the principle of participation. “Diyarbakır Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape” was registered as a World Heritage Site in 39th meeting of the World Heritage Committee in July 2015.

In Suriçi District which is the buffer zone of “Diyarbakır Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape” registered as World Heritage Site,

Curfew had been declared in six neighborhoods of Suriçi District including Cevat Paşa, Dabanoğlu, Fatih Paşa, Hasırlı, Cemal Yılmaz and Savaş and they had been blockaded by the security forces between the dates of 06.09.2015- 13.09.2015, 10.10.2015 – 13.10.2015, 28.11.2015 – 29.11.2015, 02.12.2015 – 10.12.2015 and 11.12.2015. The recently declared curfew and blockade have still continued in five neighborhoods. In the meantime, curfew had been declared in the neighborhoods of Ziya Gökalp, Süleyman Nazif, Abdaldede, Lalebey and Alipaşa neighborhoods in Sur district of Suriçi Region between the dates of 27.01.2016 – 03.02.2016. On March 10, 2016, it was announced by the Governorship of the city that the operations had been completed. Nevertheless, the demolition and excavation works had been initiated by the heavy machineries of the state institutions and the excavations had been thrown into a field in the University area before the operations were completed. That case was under report by the Environmental Protection Department of our municipality 29.02.2016 (Annex 1). The demolition and excavation works were initiated in the area being Urban Conservation Area and World Heritage Buffer Zone without any assessment and without the required approval by Cultural Heritage Protection Board. The necessary permissions for the removal of the excavation were taken about a month later. It was declared in the decision dated 23.03.2016 and numbered 3873 of Regional Conservation Council of Cultural Heritage that it has been decided the debris of the structure wreckages on the closed road will be removed under the supervision of the museum director experts, and in case of occurrence of the debris belonging to the partially or completely destroyed registered

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structures, the qualified structural elements of these structures should be maintained in an appropriate manner in the relevant area under the supervision of the museum directorate experts in order to be evaluated afterwards (Annex-1). With this decision, the removal of wreckages is allowed only on closed roads; however it was determined by the images taken by a citizen from plane on 04.04.2016 and by the satellite images dated 05/10/2016 taken by the Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality that the decision is not fulfilled under no circumstance, hundreds of buildings were destroyed, schools were converted into police stations, and the roads were widened in order to facilitate transport between the police stations. While applying these kinds of implementations against to the Reconstructive Plan for Protection and Field Management Plan, Field Management Department was not informed and their permission was not taken.

Suriçi Region is protected by international laws because of being an urban site and the buffer zone of Cultural Heritage Protection Law numbered 2863 and World Heritage Site. These are necessary in the destruction of mentioned registered structures;

 To take decision for the destruction danger separately for each structure from Regional Conservation Council,

 To set technical report for each structure to the destruction in the area by the technical staff of Construction Control Branch Manager of Municipality in accordance with the Article 39 of zoning Law No. 3194 related to the structures that are dangerous to the life and property safety,

 To take Council decision by the relevant municipality after the documentation for the danger of destruction.

However, as indicated above, the works had not been carried out by Conservation Council and the relevant municipality, and also the necessary permits had not been taken for the registered structures which were demolished in the prohibited neighborhoods. As of this day, the works and processes causing damage of the area and being contrary to national and international legislation are still going on. The qualified structural elements of the building were thrown out of the Sur region by those who are not expertise on the subject without drawing the construction, restoration and restitution projects for the registered structures.

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This situation can be clearly seen from the photographs. As seen in the satellite photo below, registered Hasırlı Mosque was completely destroyed and its excavations have been thrown from its own place.

In addition, the bell tower, south courtyard wall, main entrance door, the courtyard located in west of the church and the church outbuilding of Armenian Catholic Church, another important registered structure are completely destroyed and also a wide road has been opened in this area as seen in the following photo. DAMAGE ASSESSMENT REPORT

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It has been determined that kabaltı, can be also called Abbara, (a kind of arch on which settlement place is constructed) of the structure which is an example of registered civil architecture, and planned to be functioned as Mehmet Uzun Museum, and whose restoration process had begun before conflict was completely destroyed and the carrying system has been damaged.

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After the conflict, Field Management Department and the Metropolitan Municipality have applied many times to the governorship in order to perform the necessary damage assessment works in the area (Annex 2). However, it is not permitted on the grounds that the place is not safe at each time (Annex 3). Yet, there have not been any conflict and security problems in the area after the completion of the operation was officially announced on March 10, 2016. After the specified date, the prime minister and ministers have visited the Walled City, and they have even held a public demonstration. All of these high-level visits show that there is no security problem in Suriçi.

According to the Governorship’s statement, 3000 of the people living within Suriçi have been allowed to enter in the area and take their household goods. After completion of the operations, the staffs of Ministry of Environment and Urbanization and Culture and Tourism Ministry have begun to work in the field. Many staff of the relevant ministries has carried out their activities in the area for the demolition and excavation works. Police stations were built in School gardens and watchtowers were built on the lowest parts of city walls, and dozens of workers were employed in these constructions. That’s, anybody allowed by the government and the governorship can go in and out the area where military blockade continues; they can also carry out their works and all these in and out show that there is no security problem in the field.

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On the 17th session of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization General Conference held in Paris on the dates of October, 17 – November, 21 1972, the following decision was taken that that the corruption of cultural heritage and natural heritage increases not only because of traditional reasons but also the change of social and economic conditions; that’s why the cultural and natural heritage are under the threat of extinction. The State Party should do its utmost by the using the resources all the way and by providing all kinds of international assistance and cooperation in the particularly financial, artistic, scientific and technical fields. But, after the armed clashes the State Party has demolished numerous structures, destroyed the historical and cultural fabric of the affected areas, removed the excavations with construction equipment and done no damage assessments ostensibly due to the safety situation.

2016-AUGUST AIRPHOTO

In addition, it is possible to obtain data in order to carry out the post-conflict assessment without being entered the field by the experts. The size of the damage in the field and structures could be detected by using the laser scanning method with video capture by the equipment such as Drone and unmanned aerial vehicles and by taking satellite photos of the area. Thus, it would be possible to obtain reliable information on structures without taking the original structural elements of the registered structures out. In this way, it could be determined whether some structures could be conserved without being completely collapsed. While the necessary conservation interventions can be made to these structures without their traces completely being erased, it was observed that the registered and non-registered structures have been destroyed by using shovels and construction equipment; roads unsuitable for Reconstruction Plan for Protection have been opened; the existing streets have been widened; and the original tissue of the city have been damaged in the urban conservation area. It has been observed irreversible damage has been occurred in the original tissue of the street in Suriçi, on the registered and monumental structures and the city’s original tissue due to the excavation done by wiping the traces of structure.

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It is necessary to stop these unlawful implementations, and to apply the legal procedure related to registered and non-registered structures. In order not to lose the element and tissue material that can lead tissue loss in the demolition resulting due to the destruction, damage assessment and excavation are required; the excavation should be carried out to ensure the preservation of original construction elements in their place.

Data for population and severely damaged registered and non-registered structures, households, workplaces destroyed in the urban conservation area after this heavy conflictive process is given in the table below. Maps and other data reveal the severe damage. The total area of Suriçi is 148 hectares; the total area of the prohibited 6 districts is 75 hectares. It has been detected via satellite that 10 hectares have been destroyed.

The number of parcels in the old city, Suriçi, is 7714. 3646 of them are situated in the six neighborhoods affected heavily by the curfew. The parcels affected by the destruction after the end of the armed conflict, including the situation of the registered and non-registered buildings, have been documented based by superposition of the satellite air photo with the cadastral maps.

ASSESSMENTS DONE BASED ON THE AIRPHOTO FROM MAY 10, 2016

2016-MAY AIRPHOTO DAMAGE ASSESSMENT REPORT

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A total of 49 registered civil structures have been completely and 22 of them have been partially destroyed, 30 civil structures were heavily damaged in neighborhoods experiencing conflict. Among the monumental structures, Hasırlı Mosque has been completely destroyed; Kurşunlu Mosque, Şeyh Mutahhar Mosque, Paşa Hammam, Surp Church and its registered shops, the Armenian Catholic Church has partially destroyed. Süleyman Nazif Primary School has also damaged heavily.

Photo: May 10, 2016 map showing the parcels of registered civil and monumental structures destroyed by overlapping the cadastral maps with satellite imagery. DAMAGE ASSESSMENT REPORT

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