The Suruç municipality is preparing its sixth tent city to house refugees from ISIS attacks on Kobanê. However, the Urfa Governor’s Office and Suruç district governor’s office are trying to prevent the camp opening on the grounds of ‘security’. Co-Mayor Zuhal Ekmez said: “They are trying to break the unity and organisation of the people from Kobanê”.

The people of Suruç embraced the people who were evacuated from Kobanê and mobilised in order to look after their guests until the city was liberated. 5 tent cities were set up in the town by the municipality, the Arin Mirxan, Kobanê, Rojava, Kader Ortakaya and Necat Suphi Ağırnaslı tent cities. There are still people who need accommodation, so a sixth tent city has been set up near the village of Külünçe to house between 8 and 10 thousand refugees.

However, the Urfa Governor’s Office and Suruç district governor’s office are trying to prevent the camp opening on the grounds of ‘security’, claiming a state-run AFAD camp with a capacity of 30,000 will be set up. The people from Kobanê say they will not go to such a camp, adding that the Turkish authorities are trying to break their unity.

‘We will not back down’

DBP Local Authorities Commission member Hüseyin Yılmaz denied there were any security grounds to justify preventing the opening of the camp, adding: “The state not only does not help the refugees, it is also trying to prevent us helping.” Yılmaz said they would not back down and would oppose the efforts of the authorities.

Suruç Co-mayor Zuhal Ekmez said that the governor’s office had said they would open a large camp, but that it was not clear when this would be opened. “We are in winter and the people cannot wait even a day,” she added.

‘Their language is their greatest prop’

Ekmez said that Suruç district governor Abdullah Çiftçi had warned her about Kurdish being taught in the municipal tent cities, whereas in the state-run camps Arabic was taught. Ekmez added: “Kobanê and Suruç are one and the same. The people from Kobanê feel at home here. They do not want to stay in state-run camps.”

‘They are trying to take their language away from them’

Ekmez said the people of Kobanê received education in Kurdish in their own land, adding: “We are talking about people who have fled the attacks of a savage organisation. Their biggest prop is their language, and now the authorities are trying to take that from them. They are trying to distance the people from an organised structure.”

She said: “What the Turkish state wants to do here is to divide the Kurds from Suruç from those from Kobanê and destroy their unity.”

‘Those in the AFAD camps want to come to our camps’

Ekmez added that the people staying in the AFAD tent city wanted to come to the tent cities run by the municipality. She continued: “There are more than 30 thousand people who need accommodation in Suruç. The authorities claim there is a problem of ‘security’, but we are responsible for the security in the camps we run. AFAD does not ensure security in our tent cities. The state’s real intention is to teach the people Arabic to divide them.”