Residents had been sent notices to evacuate their homes in Alipaşa and Lalebey neighborhoods in Sur where demolition was scheduled to start. Water was cut off in the neighborhoods and diggers attempted to enter the neighborhood, but were pushed back by the people’s resistance. After this incident, police stopped the people from marching to the governorate earlier today, and threatened them by saying “We will throw your bodies to the construction site.”

HDP (Peoples' Democratic Party), DBP (Democratic Regions' Party), ESP (Socialist Party of the Oppressed) branches, HDP deputies and Chamber of Architects held a demonstration in Sur's Alipaşa neighborhood against the imminent demolition by the state. Locals from Lalebey and Alipaşa neighborhoods also joined the demo. Police blockaded the protestors and threatened to intervene them in the event that they make a statement against the demolition.

As people protested the police, DBP provincial co-chair Zeki Baran stressed that the Turkish state based its existence on the destruction of the Kurdish people.

Remarking that the people of Sur face losing their past and homes, Baran said Sur was no ordinary place and cannot be sacrificed for the state.

“They want to demolish Sur by use of force. State forces threaten the residents on daily basis, saying that “Either you leave or we cut off power and water, and demolish your houses on you”. The residents of Sur are people who were born and raised here. Everyone should know that the houses of Kurds will not be a home but only a grave to anyone else. This is what has happened so far, and so shall it be.”

Speaking after, a resident of Alipaşa neighborhood, Mevlüde Kaya whose house is among those to be demolished, underlined that they will not leave Sur at any cost.

Another Alipaşa neighborhood resident Mevlüt Dağtaş said that he is 68 years old and has lived in Sur all his life, telling the following; “Everyone should know that we will not give Sur even if we need to die for it. Those with tanks and artilleries might push us out by force but we will not leave home. They threaten us with cutting off power and water. Let them do so. We will still not leave here, even if we are left without light and water. We were born here and we want to die here. We don't need anyone's money.”

Chamber of Architects Co-chair Şerefhan Aydın also spoke, saying the followings;

“There is a serios invasion of rent in Sur over the past two years. They want to demolish Sur and turn it into an area of rent. They are enforcing the people to exile. The people leaving here are being through severe traumas. I call upon everyone to be the voice of the people. UNESCO inscribed Sur on World Heritage List in 2015 but raises no objection to the demolition developed in Sur. The structures in Sur are what create the soul of Sur. If the structures, life, history and culture do not exist, nothing else will have importance. We call on everyone to raise their voice against these unrestrained attacks.”