Four-legged Minaret, Sur, #Diyarbakir. Then/now. We needed permission. No one else allowed behind the screen. pic.twitter.com/K4nLSnjYtx
— John Dalhuisen (@DalhuisenJJ) May 21, 2016
The diaspora and rights groups have been unnerved by expropriations in Diyarbakir, where the government is fighting militants and where, it says, it will return properties after restoration is complete.
This ad from the Turkish Prime Ministry chilled me to the bone. See this article (here) about the destruction of Sur, the UNESCO-protected old city of Diyarbakir, by Turkish security forces in December 2015 using heavy weapons, causing the mostly Kurdish population to flee. The article also mentions that the Turkish state then expropriated most of the properties in Sur (see image below from March 2016, expropriations are in red).