Category: Main Issues

`I Want for Armenians what I want for Kurds’: An interview with Mayor
Abdullah Demirbas

‘I want for Armenians what I want for Kurds’: An interview with Mayor Abdullah Demirbas

Sat, Oct 29 2011

By: Khatchig Mouradian

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (A.W.) – Abdullah Demirbas is a man on a mission. The
mayor of Diyarbakir’s central district strives to restore some of the
city’s multicultural, multiethnic character through a series of
initiatives to renovate places on worship, adopt multilingualism, and
encourage those with roots in the city to return.

Baris Alen from the Diyarbakir metropolitan municipality, Weekly
editor Khatchig Mouradian, mayor Abdullah Demirbas, mayor of Warwick,
R.I. Scott Avedisian, and Weekly contributor George Aghjayan.
I sat down with the mayor in his office in Diyarbakir on Oct. 23.

`For decades, we were told, `people [of different cultures] can’t live
together, so we won’t tolerate difference, we will make them all the
same,” Demirbas laments. `Ours is an effort to restore what was lost
during the state’s campaign to erase different identities, faiths, and
cultures in the city.’

>From the moment a visitor enters the city, signs of this multicultural
approach manifest themselves, literally. Diyarbakir is the first city
in Turkey to welcome its visitors with signs in Armenian.

`We could have done it in Turkish and Kurdish only. But these lands do
not belong to the Turks and Kurds alone. They are also the lands of
Armenians, Assyrians, and Chaldeans,’ the Kurdish mayor explains.

These signs are not just for visitors, but constitute an effort to
change mindsets. `We want the people living in the city to realize
that historically, Diyarbakir has always been a multicultural city,’
he noted.

More than 100,000 Armenians lived in the Diyarbakir province in 1914.
Although mostly peasants living in villages like Palu and Lice, the
majority of the tradesmen in the province were also Armenian. In turn,
Armenian craftsmen and artisans, constituted a significant presence in
the province.

The Armenian genocide shattered this vibrant community. Diyarbakir
witnessed one of the most violent and comprehensive campaigns of
massacre in the Ottoman Empire, with most Armenians being killed
outside the city walls. The Armenian wealth was confiscated by the
authorities and local elites. Within a few years, the centuries-old
Armenian presence in the province was erased.

Demirbas does not mince his words when talking about the Armenian
genocide. `Our grandparents, incited by others, committed wrongs. But
we, their grandchildren, will not repeat them. Not only that, but we
will also not allow others to repeat them,’ he said. `We learned from
the past. Those lessons inform our actions in the present, and will
continue informing them in the future.’

The mayor insists that he does not believe in `dry apologies’ but
actions that demonstrate genuineness and sincerity. He sees the
renovation of Sourp Giragos as one manifestation of this approach.
`Today, we are not simple asking for forgiveness in a dry fashion,’ he
notes. `I am a Kurd. And I want for Armenians what I want for the
Kurds.’

`What is your message to the Armenians who were uprooted from their
ancestral lands?’ I ask him. He changes his posture, looks at me
straight in the eye, and says, `Return! At least come and find your
homes and your lands. If you can find your old houses, renovate them!
Have a home here too. This is your motherland. Other lands cannot and
will not be your motherland. Come to your lands, we want to correct
the past wrong. This is our message!’

Demirbas has suffered dearly for his multicultural initiatives and for
being an outspoken critic of the Turkish state. Twenty-three lawsuits
have been filed against him, he says, asking for 232 years of
imprisonment. `I am the only mayor in Turkey who was forced out of his
position. I was imprisoned for two years for my opinions and policies,
but when I returned, I was reelected with an even bigger margin,’ he
says.

Diyarbakir, a predominantly Kurdish region, promises to become an
oasis of multiculturalism in a desert of denial and oppressive
policies. The strategy of embracing all cultures – as opposed to
struggling solely for Kurdish autonomy and rights – could serve as an
example for other Kurdish dominated municipalities in the Southeast.

Demirbas’s efforts are not lost on the international community. The
European Union and the U.S. encourage Diyarbakir’s multicultural
initiatives and restoration efforts. The EU has provided a grant to
highlight the city’s historic and cultural heritage. The U.S.
Ambassador to Turkey, U.S. consuls in Istanbul and Adana, and embassy
staff attended the mass in Sourp Giragos. The consuls also attended
the consecration of the church the day before. `Our multicultural
approach is in line with theirs,’ the mayor notes.

The Turkish state, on the other hand, is far behind, argues Demirbas.
`There was no representative from the state today [in Sourp Giragos].
But they will come. They will have to. And it all depends on our
struggle,’ he says. `I was thrown in prison, my 16-year-old son has
joined the PKK and is on the mountains, and [the state] will harass me
again, they will imprison me again, even something worse might happen
to me, but I act based on my convictions. And one day they, too, will
come.’
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