STAR ON THE BORDER

Type:
Documentary

Duration:
19 minutes

Year:
2023

Producer:
Hakikat Adalet  Hafıza Merkezi

Country:
Kurdistan (Bakur)

Language(s):
Kurdish (Kurmanji)

In March 1993, Gendarmerie Unit Commander Hasan Atilla Uğur and a group of soldiers in the administration organized a house in a residential area called “Dirbesiyê” in Mardin-Kızıltepe, which was then a town, now a neighborhood, right next to the Syrian/Rojava border.

As a justification, everyone says that the star symbol on the iron window railings in the house represents the PKK, and Hasan Atilla orders the star symbol in Uğur’s print to be removed. The symbol of the star was perceived as a threat due to the oppression that day, and an order was given to destroy it, claiming that it was a crime. The star symbols on the windows will be removed from the windows that day, and the part with the star symbol on the temperature will remain as an empty circle. Those who experienced the incident want to say that when giving the windows of the house in the late 70s, the welding expert distributed stars on the window bars and that many houses in the vicinity had a star symbol. In case of fear of violence, they would remove stars directly from any point of opposition.

With this study, we hear from the people who experienced this incident and from the world, how a cultural symbol, even a symbol that was not noticed there, the star symbol, which is now found on many houses and viewpoints in the region, was turned into an element of crime at that time. In addition, after the good times that remain in the memories of the people living in Dirbesiyê, located on the Syrian/Rojava border, we witness the laying of mines on the border, the deterioration of the economy with the separation from the 1980 Coup period, and finally the Turkey-Rojava conflict, allowing the people in the village to migrate.

Berîvan Saruhan was born in 1994 in Mardin (Northern Kurdistan). She graduated from Mardin Artuklu University, Department of Kurdish Language and Literature in 2017. She started her Master’s degree at the same university at the Living Languages Institute, Department of Kurdish Language and Culture, but had to quit due to various reasons. She carried out voluntary and professional work in many non-governmental organizations in Kurdistan and Istanbul. She currently continues her work in the field of combating gender and violence against women at the Women’s Time Association in Istanbul. She has been a sworn translator since 2016 and has been working as a freelance translator, editor and Kurdish language instructor.