The words “Construction begins, Title owners are getting their houses” are displayed in the busiest streets of Şırnak's Cizre district. The billboards also have fancy photos, but are indicators of an unjust execution. After burning and razing the city to the ground, the state will now carry out ‘urban transformation’ in the district.

Nobody knows the details of the Cizre 1. Round Urban Transformation (Cudi neighborhood) project to be carried out by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization. Even the neighborhood headman have not been informed. The rumors suggest that prices will be determined based on titles and even 20 years-old houses will be treated as ‘shanties’ even if they have titles.

Cudi neighborhood’s residents are the families that were forced to migrate to Cizre after the forced evacuation of their villages during the 90s. Since current market conditions will be the basis of cost calculation during the project, the title owners will be in debt for many years to come.

Nobody is informed about the project. Even the website of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization does not mention the project in its website. The people of Cizre, who will be victimized by this project, do not welcome it.

The amount of money that was supposed to be paid for the repair of the buildings that got damaged during last year’s clashes has still not been paid. People of Cizre have taken loss assessment to the court because the loss is calculated inadequately.

People are critical towards and have tens of questions about the ‘Urban Transformation Project.’ Residents of Cizre do not want to abandon their neighborhoods and want to build houses on their land with their own means.

"I DON’T WANT TO GIVE MY LAND"

A.Ö., a resident of Cudi neighborhood, stated that he does not want to give up his land and said “There is always uncertainty. We gave our land and they will put up a building to only give us one apartment. Is this not unfair? They are after unearned income here. They have not paid a penny to the owners of the houses that have been identified as ‘heavy damaged.’ There is no payment for internal or external damage. A very few people got paid after a long effort. They do their most to make us dependent on them.”

"WE WON’T ABANDON CİZRE TO THEM"

Ahmet Tokgöz said that despite their application a year ago, authorities have not responded on loss assessment. Tokgöz said “We are forced to go to every institution door by door. Their promise of ‘rent support’ has been empty. People in the heavily-damaged houses have not received rent support over the past year. Now they are saying that TOKİ housing will be constructed. We do not want to give our houses to the state; we can do our houses by ourselves. Even the neighborhood headmen does not know what will happen. They pay half of the internal damage that is up to ten thousand lira in two installments. We had a lot of furniture, their loss has not been compensated. The calculations are unfair and arbitrary. They estimate the worth of the property by looking at the houses from outside. They calculate internal damage as 12 percent of the external damage. They treat old houses as ‘shanties’ and say that 20 year-old houses are not fit for accommodation. We don’t understand their logic. Our entire neighborhood took this to the court. We won’t abandon Cizre to them nor give up on our rights.”