Construction in Newala Qesaba: 'How can you accept villas built on your children's graves?'

Photo: MA

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Newala Qesaba, covered in many songs, books, and movies, has been an infamous burial ground for over a century.

During WWI, Armenians and Chaldeans were buried in an area of about 100 acres. After clashes in the 1980s with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), an estimated 300 Kurds were interred around the creek, including PKK commander Mahsum Korkmaz, who launched the group's first attack against state forces on August 15, 1984.

On April 22, 1989, construction commenced in the area, but this was halted by Siirt's governor when the remains of eight people were found after a couple of hours of digging. Over time, however, a highway was built, the site was used as a garbage dump, and a wedding hall and police academy were erected.

The luxury residential complex

Since March 2022, construction company War Yapı has been developing eight-story buildings, luxury villas, and a swimming pool on Newala Qesaba. A sales office has been set up on the worksite, which has been fenced off. Reportedly, cameras are installed around the area, and people who want to take pictures or videos are being threatened by people driving around in cars.

The construction rapidly caused a stir which War Yapı waved off in a statement in April 2022, stating the area has been open for development since 2006.

"The place in question has nothing to do with our construction area." The business reacted, giving the building project the slogan, "You will say a nice 'hello' to life in your new villas."

Allegedly, police officers, soldiers, and AKP members are among those who applied to purchase one of these luxury homes.

"What kind of morality?"

For Hüseyin Sarik, however, whose brother is buried on the site, Newala Qesaba is an open wound, stating that everybody in Siirt knows that there are bodies interred in the area.

"Although this is known, buildings, luxury villas with pools, and shopping malls are being built here. What kind of conscience do you have? What kind of morality?" he told the Mezopotamya Agency (MA).

Sarik's brother joined the PKK after the 1980 coup and was killed in clashes with the army in 1985 together with three others. Authorities buried his remains at Newala Qesaba. And their mother had, for years, tried to receive her son's bones, before passing away four years ago.

Hüseyin Sarik, who was 11 when his brother was killed, remembers how his brother's body and those of three others were kept open in an army truck for 20 days. When his mother begged to get her son's body from the military authorities, they dug a hole in Newala Qesaba right in front of her, where they buried all four of them.

"My mother insisted that her son's body be given to them, but they did not. After that day, she applied continuously but died without burying his son. All she wanted was to get her son's bones," Sarik explained.

Contrary to War Yapı's vision of 'having a foundation that is respectful to people and nature', Sarik sees the constructions as brutal and cruel to build on people's bones in Newala Qesaba. "How will you raise your children in pools built on bodies?

"I am calling out to the people of Siirt from this area built on the suffering of a people. How can you accept villas being built on your children's graves? Put yourself in the shoes of these families," he questioned.

Objections

In recent months objections have been raised against opening the area for construction.

Human Rights Association (İHD) Siirt Branch's former chair and journalist Zana Aksu, who has been working on issues at Newala Qesaba for years, recently remarked they applied for the preservation of the stream in February 2011 and filed a criminal complaint against the then officials.

"There was a request to build a memorial. But, instead of this, a police academy, a double highway and a wedding hall have been built. And, lastly, multi-storeyed buildings and villas are being constructed." Aksu said.

When construction started in the spring of 2022, a delegation of the People's Democratic Party (HDP) went to Newala Qesaba and wanted to conduct examinations, together with the representatives of non-governmental organizations of the city on April 13, 2022. However, the police stopped them, and the delegation had to leave after speaking to the press.

Hüseyin Sarik was also present when the construction commenced.

"When we went here with the delegation and deputies 8 months ago, we were informed that the construction had stopped. But now we see hundreds of villas being built. ... Let's form a committee and take legal initiatives. Let's stop this brutality," Sarik demanded. (EMK/WM/VK)