It’s not just buildings and homes that have been torn down here. The past, the lives, the joy, the hopes of Şırnak’s residents... The spirit of Botan is the life and blood of the Kurdish culture. These are lands where the resistance has continued without a hitch for years. That is the true reason for the rage and brutality of the dominant powers.

The curfew has finally been lifted after 246 days in Şırnak. The residents who manage to pass through the search points set up around the perimeter of the city experienced a shock when they arrived in the city. The streets and neighborhoods where they grew up were no more.

If you can pass through the search points on the perimeter, you’re one of the lucky ones who can enter the city. A great destruction greets you immediately. The Şırnak Governorate spoke of 2.044 buildings being torn down the other day. And the demolition of “buildings affected by clashes” will continue, according to them.

Şırnak residents fail to find their streets or their homes, and try to at least determine the location of their homes by looking at landmarks or remaining furniture among the debris. 7 largest neighborhoods of Şırnak, Gazipaşa, Yeşilyurt, İsmetpaşa, Dicle, Cumhuriyet, Bahçelievler and Yeni, have completely been torn to the ground. Construction equipment with license plates from different cities continue the demolition. It is forbidden to take photos or record anything. They apparently don’t want their thievery to be documented.

It’s not just buildings and homes that have been torn down here. The past, the lives, the joy, the hopes of Şırnak’s residents... The spirit of Botan is the life and blood of the Kurdish culture. These are lands where the resistance has continued without a hitch for years. That is the true reason for the rage and brutality of the powers that be.

They say people resemble the land they live on. The people of Şırnak are stubborn as the oak trees in their hills. It won’t be easy to tear them away from these lands. Like they lived for months in tents, they say they will continue to live in these lands.

What they resent the most is the silence. They ask: “Why is everybody silent for Şırnak? When there is any injustice anywhere else, is this how we do it?” And where do we put the silence, even though the demolition is carried out by bulldozers physically? Where do we stand in the demolition?

Police patrols and armored vehicles have been positioned at many points throughout the city. Those who return experience several complex pains together. The children who helplessly watch their torn down neighborhoods affect us the worst. The children who should be playing, are going through the debris looking for their belongings. They grow up much earlier than their peers. There are no street animals in Şırnak where the trees have been torn out of the soil. Even they left the city in the face of what happened.

It is hard to guess what anybody is searching for among those ruins, it’s like all of them are looking for a moment. They pull out whatever they can find about the past from the masses of debris. One is joyful because of a photo, another for a piece of drapery that belonged to their home. The children are of course affected the worst. They sit and watch the ruins. I ask one of them what’s going on: “Brother, they tore down our home too. We had just built it. How will my dad find money to build a new one?”

A letter Y can be seen painted on many of the still standing buildings. It’s “Y” for “Yıkılacak” - “To be torn down”. Why are these buildings that don’t even have a single bullet hole on them “to be torn down”? Would it be possible to mark these buildings with a “Y” and keep it in line to be demolished, if they were in Izmir? The enmity is not only towards the people of Şırnak themselves, it’s towards everything that belongs to them. Alive, inanimate, small, big, young, old - they are enemies to anything and everything that belongs here and symbolizes this place. That is why they burn it to the ground.

The destruction in Cumhuriyet neighborhood is immense. The only surviving building is the Hacı Ömer Uğur Mosque. Anything left of the homes after the demolition is liquidated. Nobody knows where the appliances and merchandise in the shops are. It is “forbidden” to walk around among the ruins, to take photos, even to talk to people.

They say there is still some unexploded ammunition in the city. Despite all the time that has gone by, the unexploded ammunition poses a great danger.

Şırnak Municipality, which was appointed with a trustee, has also been damaged. A huge Turkish flag has been draped over the entrance.

And of course, the dead who can’t escape the wrath and grudge of the state. The bodies the state doesn’t just kill, but tortures and traumatizes the people over. All the cemeteries in the city have been damaged. The grave of Hacı Lokman Birlik, who was dragged behind an armored vehicle after he was killed, and the graves of his family are also damaged.

But they don’t know, that our hearts are the resting place for Hacı and his comrades.