President of Diyarbakir Promotion Culture and Solidarity Foundation stated that Diyarbakir is an historic and cultural city and showed his reaction that historic fabric of the city is not being protected.

Diyarbakir Promotion Culture and Solidarity Foundation Diyarbakir provincial branch President Edip Sevgican stated that the richness of the city stays in the background and falls into oblivion because lack of interest and security gap, emphasized that the city comes first at hosting historic and cultural values.

Sevgican said that Diyarbakir has hosted for many civilizations and the city itself is like an open-air museum.

Diyarbakir cannot be search in the history but history can be search in Diyarbakir

Sevgican drew attention to the historic richness of Diyarbakir and added, “Diyarbakir is not being search in the history but history is being search in Diyarbakir. Many premiers happened in Diyarbakir. Historic Grand Mosque is one of them, minaret with 4 legs. We can say many like Malabadi Bridge, wall of Diyarbakir, bastions. They are unique in the world.”

Sevgican said in following in the compare of Great Wall of China and Wall of Diyarbakir, “There is a subject which understood wrongly. We always talk about the Great Wall of China. Great Wall constructed as barrier, but Wall of Diyarbakir is a part of the city. Whole the city took in the Wall. Wall actually is the city, is not a part of partition. Wall known with its 4 gates. Dağkapı [Mountain Gate], Mardinkapı [Mardin Gate], Urfakapı [Urfa Gate] and Yenikapı [New Gate]… Those gates were opening with sunrise and closed with sunset of yore.”

Historic baths have lost their function

Sevgican touched to special baths which constructed for out comer convoys, stated that those baths were for visitors who come from out of city to get clean. Sevgican said that those baths are located in all gates of the city, they were effective to prevent illness come inside of the city.

We give effort to destroy our culture and values

Sevgican remarked that as a resident of Diyarbakir they haven’t done something for city wall, “We destroyed Wall of Diyarbakir with our hands. We removed stones of the Wall. We took stones of the Wall. We struggled to destroy our culture and values. The history stands purposely while cooperatively we try to destroy.”

Events which shouldn’t supposed to happen, left Diyarbakir behind

Sevgican said that Diyarbakir has damaged in cultural and in historical because of events happened in Diyarbakir and added, “Those events were not supposed to happen, they left the city behind. Damages to tourism. Tourism was booming before. The city was rich from domestic and foreign travels. Who will come to an unsecured city after events happened? Which people are not travelling, and shop owners make loss, also people.”

Sevgican drew attention to security gap in the region and add those to his speak:

Even there are many primes in here but still tourists not travel to here which I attribute it to events. Hotels were full in the past. The amount getting decrease. People started not travelling here. The big reason of this because of security gap in the region. As we are Diyarbakir Promotion Culture and Solidarity Foundation we have effort to explain those as much as we can. We translated lastly the book which is written by of Albert Gabriel and a French archeologist. And actually there is another book with title ‘Amida’ which in the work of Foundation lastly. (ILKHA)