Zehra Doğan-Bêrîtan Elyakut/JINHA

SEMSUR – Since it emerged that the Suruç bomber was from the largely Kurdish province of Adıyaman, the area has become the focus of attention. Women in the city say they have been living in fear.

On July 20, a suicide bomber blew himself up the Amara Culture Center in Suruç, Turkey, taking 31 young activists with him. Bomber Şeyh Abdurrahman Alagöz, it has emerged, was a resident of Adıyaman, a largely Kurdish province of Turkey. It has also emerged that the perpetrator of the June 5 attack on an elections rally in Diyarbakır was an Adıyaman resident, Orhan Gönder. Both joined Daesh within the last year.

The Adıyaman motto of "city of peace" has started to seem out of place, according to women JINHA spoke to in the city. The fact that Alevi youth--members of a Shiite denomination--have been joining Daesh has the city scared and alarmed. Many Alevis say they fear that Daesh is planning attacks on their villages.

Locals say that Daesh began to have a presence in the city three years ago. After the bombing in Suruç, a café run by the bomber's older brother--the Islam Tea House--was shut down, but neighborhood shopkeepers report that it was just one among many. Daesh has opened bakeries, grocery stores, glassware stores and tea houses to organize in the neighborhood, allegedly with the support of sheikh of the large Menzil society based in Adıyaman.

"We don't have any peace anymore; we're always expecting an attack," said Senem Yılmaz, who runs a neighborhood variety store. Yasemin Varan, a grocer, said that before darkness falls, she closes her shutters. She says Daesh conducts its trainings at night, so she and the other shopkeepers close up before night falls.

"Hatred for Kurds is still continuing as before," said house worker Fatma Yorulmaz, who said that Daesh has intentionally come to the impoverished Kurdish city of Adıyaman and recruited youth using drugs while police and soldiers do nothing. Fatma said that she lives in fear even of sending her children to school alone. Rabia Akbel, also a house worker, echoed the sense of fear. "We've memorized one another's phone numbers at this point," she said.

Fahriye Akbaba is the provincial co-chair for the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). She says that hundreds of local families have come to the party asking for help finding their children, who have joined Daesh.

"The families' applications to the police generally are not followed up on," said Fahriye. She noted that the socioeconomic structure of Adıyaman has facilitated Daesh organizing. "In this city, where there is absolutely no employment, young people have become addicted to drugs. The gangs that disseminate this kind of violence are also reproducing themselves here.

"We have also been told that Daesh offers a certain sum of money to families with a suicide bomber," said Fahriye. "Up until now, there have been four suicide bombers coming out of Adıyaman. Not a single state representative has come here to analyze it. Therefore, the only one responsible is the AKP."

(zd/cm)