There are many cafés in it, as well as other shops selling the traditional handicraft products of the region. To sit there makes me happy not only because of the wonderful tea they are serving, but because of the people around who are smiling all the time, and after your first visit, they will open their hearts and be very friendly with you. Before writing this article, I made several phone calls and during all of them, when my counterparts heard that I was in Diyarbakır, they strongly emphasized that I need to take care of myself. When they warn me to be very careful, unfortunately, they really mean it. These warnings not only break my heart and my hopes for the future, but they also break the hearts of the people who live here.
Despite a common language and a shared culture, travelers usually feel that they are in a "foreign" city when they are in Diyarbakır. They are usually surprised when they are served the local traditional breakfast in Hasan Paşa Han: a bowl of yogurt mixed with jam with pomegranate seeds sprinkled on top. Regardless of the contents of the breakfast, the conversation inevitably comes to the poignant conclusion of how little Turks and Kurds actually know about each other.
"You think that we are all terrorists. You think that we don't like you, that we are enemies and not honest people," the locals say. Usually they gave the same example: "When a civil servant is appointed here, they usually come in tears with the idea that they will serve in a hostile environment. But when they leave, they do it in tears, too, because they will leave their neighbors and friends."
Upon hearing this complaint, those travelers who haven't left their hearts at home during their journey immediately remember the very first Kurdish phrase they learned: ser çawa, which literally means "on top of my head and eye." It is an expression that is also used in Turkish and Persian that roughly means "your wish is my command." Those with their heart in the right place also remember that even before learning "spas" (thank you), they learn ser çawa because it is the most common phrase they hear.
Then the conversation inevitably circles back to "who did this to us, and why are we separated in our hearts" despite the rhetoric of "we are brothers" and we are inseparable "like flesh and nail," this time a Turkish expression. But the locals smile bitterly when they hear it, because most of them agree with the Kurdish intellectual who said, "You are always cutting the nail."
Conversations here inevitably ask, who did this to us? When and where did we start to develop prejudices?
The region has not been peaceful at all times, that is true, but according to locals, the media are to blame.
Wherever you go, you hear complaints not only about the news in the national media but also about the TV series. The locals mention that on almost every channel there is a "Kurdish series" whose plots depict the Kurds as awful, dishonest people; in almost all of them a "white man" from the western part of Turkey comes to the region to fight against the evils in the area. This inner Orientalism is the most heartbreaking attitude for the people of the region.
But there are some other heartbreaking things, this time coming from the region to the west. One example is the argument that the works of great Kurdish novelist Mehmet Uzun should not be translated into Turkish. Those who support this argument suggest that when his work was translated into Turkish, even the Kurds preferred to read the translations, thus becoming obstacles for the improvement of Kurdish. It is also heartbreaking to hear that the Kurds are tired of trying to introduce themselves to Turks and feel as if they should give up these efforts because they are useless.
There are millions of suggestions for solutions to the Kurdish problem, but as long as the unnecessary need to warn the travelers visiting there remains, as long as the inner Orientalism is strong and as long as people give up introducing themselves to one another, none of them will be useful.
I wish for a peaceful Sunday, with exactly the same sense of peace and friendship that someone feels at Hasan Paşa Han.
