Diyarbakir safe?

[dyaoko]

Keep in mind that there is no kurdistan

There is a Beauty Kurdistan, there has been a beauty kurdistan for 8000 years and it wont be delteted by your words.

[sorgul]

diyarbekir is my favorite city in kurdistan
well i havent been to all of kurdistan
but i love it ! its so cute i wanne live there one day

[tomjez]

there is no kurdistan, there is no kurdistan, there is no kurdistan........shit! Still there!

[pepula]

Amed is pretty but it would be nicer if the turkish influence disappeared from it.
Aw i love KURDISTAN

[dyaoko]

I willl love Amed (the kurdish name of Dyarbakir) when there is no Turkish flag there, I saw some pics of Amed, these turks have put their flag in every inch of the street..like you can see 10000 turk flags in 10 meter.

if I go there I couldnt stop myself firing those ugly fahsist flags....so I wont go there until It be librated

.Beji Kurdistan

[tomjez]

Well in Iraki kurdistan there is sure a lot of Kurdish flags...a bit like turkish model actually. But god it feels good

[pepula]

duhok is full of kurdish flags . its a complete contrast to the other side of the border in Turkish occupied areas, where kurdistan doesn't even exist(according to the turks)

[cheryl]

Everyone keep in mind that Marlboro causes cancer.

Piling, an Amedî friend of mine had gone to liberated Kurdistan a few weeks before I arrived. I asked him how he liked the South and he said that he really liked it. I asked him what he liked best. He said the thing he liked best was that all the soldiers and all the police were Kurds

Vladimir, don't believe this BS about Amed being unsafe. Any city can be unsafe, but I have to tell you that I felt totally safe when I was among Kurds. Istanbul was another story.

I went alone to Kurdistan, a single woman (A thought: What is it about Kurdistan that draws lone female travellers? Could it be the quality of the Kurdish men?), and I always felt safe when I was with Kurds. At times, I was alone with Kurdish men I did not know, driving to and from the border and at the border, but they knew I was a friend of Kurds, so they took care of me very well. I never feared at all.

The Turkish police and jandarma made me nervous because, for one thing, they just start yelling suddenly, for no apparent reason. Kurdish police and peshmerga, on the other hand, are so polite, so relaxed, so friendly and helpful. It is like night and day.

When I arrived in Istanbul, on my way out, the first thing the driver of the hotel shuttle asked me was if I spoke Kurdish. He was a Kurd. He took very good care of me and I was not afraid. I arrived at the hotel around 1 in the morning, and the man there was also Kurd. I was safe. It was the non-Kurdish part of Istanbul that made me nervous.

If you go, you will be safe if you are among Kurds. Amed also has night watchmen for each neighborhood. These watchmen are Kurds. They walk the streets with big sticks throughout the night. I know this because I was running around the streets of Amed LATE AT NIGHT! Okay, very early morning. I saw one of the watchmen and asked my heval who the man was. He explained about the night watchmen.

If Turkish police are "guarding" something. . . forget it. They are not in Amed to protect against crime. Their purpose in Amed is to control the population, nothing more. That is why there are night watchmen.

I agree with Heval. . . the best time to go is springtime. I would imagine that autumn is also nice if you are concerned about the heat, but spring is really nice. Of course, in the spring is when the TSK drives APCs around the streets of Amed, but if you've served time in the military, this isn't too nervewracking.

Just GO.

[tomjez]

Come on there is no problem Istanbul. When I feel nervous in this city it's because I drink too much coffee. About "non kurdish part" being unsafe, I'm not sure again. Did you try to walk as a single woman in the streets of tarlabasi at night? Some guys don't care if you're a friend of the kurds! But walking in the streets of Fener or Balat is wonderful, cause everybody is smiling at you...turks don't feel confortable at all there though!

For "night and day" about turkish police and peshmergas: SO TRUE!!!!!! The crossing of the border was awful, racist contempting useless policemen on one side, "welcome to kurdistan", big smiles on the other side...and it feels really good traveling in Kurdistan. First country where I am almost "happpy" to be controlled at a checkpoint! I'm not gay, but young peshmergas are just "so cute!"

[cheryl]

please, tomjez, don't tell me about istanbul at night. i couldn't even sit in the park next to the sultanahmet and listen to agire jiyan on my ipod without weirdos coming around, telling me how they are "music students," and asking how i like my trip and did i know how romantic galata bridge is and they would be happy to show me.

on top of all that, they talk french to me and ask me if i'm french.

i'm like "get the f**k out of here or i'm going to scream and tear your eyes out of your head with my fingernails"

kurdish men are not like that, at least not to me. they were very kind and honorable.

so i will not like istanbul at night unless i am in the company of kurds and that is what i mean when i speak about "the kurdish part." it is not a physical or geographic location.

esides, it was terribly depressing being in istanbul after spending 6 weeks among the kurds. it is far too western. who can stand it? coming back to the us was even worse.

yes, the border on the turkish side is a madhouse! you never know what will happen next. then there is great relief on the kurdish side, where all is peace and serenity and the kurds are not yelling at you or your driver or anyone else.

i used to take the peshmerga guards outside my house in ainkawa cold drinks and snacks in the afternoons when i was home. it's so hot and boring being on guard duty.

[tomjez]

Well yeah you're right, being a girl in Istanbul can be tiring, because you're always hit on by guys. I accept that. But you're never in danger I believe, they try to flirt with you but are not agressive or threatening...come on this kind of "come and see how galata bridge is romantic" can happen in Paris
If they talked french to you you should feel flattered, they believe all pretty foreign girls are french or italian....

And for kurdish men not being like that: that's true: when they meet a foreign girl they fall in love, stop eating and if the girl was mad enough to give a number, they call it 10 times a day for weeks, and from time to time during months or years! (It happened to 3 of my friends so I dare say it's not an isolated case!!!). And when they are married they say "no problem I hate my wife, please marry me" (that's when they know a girl for 2 or 3 days)


Anyway THEY should feel nervous around you, you don't look exactly pacifist...tear your eyes out

[Vladimir]

Indeed Western Turkey becomes annoying after some years. I was there this year about 5 weeks. Also the Kurds there got "westernised".. only care about fucking a new tourist girl no matter where she is from.. (Off course Kurds who work in disco's, etc).

I know one Kurd, he said to me I can show you everything about Islam so you can become muslim. And then I later asked why they are having sex with so many girls. Then they say.. I am not Osama Bin Laden, I am modern muslim.. we drink alcohol, have sex before marriage.. etc..

O well I still think it's strange.

And I was at the same place where the bombs went off and killed 4 or 5 tourists. I have never seen so much Turkish flags at the same time.

[cheryl]

tomjez writes:

Well yeah you're right, being a girl in Istanbul can be tiring, because you're always hit on by guys. I accept that. But you're never in danger I believe, they try to flirt with you but are not agressive or threatening...come on this kind of "come and see how galata bridge is romantic" can happen in Paris

tomjez, the problem with one guy in particular was that, as i was sitting across from the sultanahmet, i saw this guy talking to another guy and they were watching me. this put me on guard, so i watched them. then they split up. the next thing was this guy approaching my bench, sitting down and starting to tell me all his nonsense. i was immediately suspicious.

i was not about to go anywhere with him, i didn't care if he wanted to show me some damn bridge made out of solid platinum and pasted all over with valentines. i was not about to have a drink or a meal with him either.

my suspicion is that all he saw was a "rich" westerner, and he was probably looking to knock me over for money. too bad! i spent almost everything in kurdistan

everyone else was talking to me because they were carpet-sellers. too bad! i bought all my kilims in amed how tiresome all those guys are.

no, i am no pacifist. the us army did not teach me to be a pacifist

Vladimir, from what i understand, people in the tourist areas dress pretty much as they do in the west, which probably encourages the mentality you describe. since i spent all but two days in kurdistan, my wardrobe was very conservative. long skirts, long pants, long sleeves. the main difference between my dress and my kurdish friends' sisters was that i did not cover my head. well, one of them didn't cover either, but she was from a PKK family.

the western atmosphere is such a shock, especially after being in kurdistan for 6 weeks. how depressing, and those turkish flags, they look so foreign in kurdistan.

you were in kusadasi? or cesme?

[abdur]

Hmm i dont believe that kurds are nicer to tourists than turks in general, except for the military and police. We all have rotten apples and we should also keep in mind kurds living in western Turkey are mostly poor so they got more criminals at the moment.

only care about fucking a new tourist girl no matter where she is from..

Yeah and no matter how she looks like. This story is about my own region but i think its the generally the same in the rest of northern Kurdistan: Kurdish youth arent allowed to date, the boys are so desperate sometimes they do it with donkeys or eachother. So it's no wonder actually that they act like that in the tourist regions.

[ChiChalok]

Is Diyarbakir safe to visit for tourists?
The Baba of a Kurdish family said it was dangerous.. that's why I didn't go there. But I want to go there another time.

it is saft its all kurdz