Midyat getting ready for elections

Sedat Sur, take us to Midyat, in our journey through cities and town in Kurdistan getting ready for the local elections.

We have seen how the land lies prior to the local elections in the Midyat district of Mardin province, a mosaic of peoples and beliefs.

There are some 60 thousand voters in Midyat, mainly consisting of Kurds and Arabs, the majority of whom are from the M?hellemi community, and 500 voters from Syriacs.

Midyat is divided into two parts within itself, the Estel region mainly hosts the Arabs in the district, and Kurds and Syriacs in the Midyat side.

In line with the population distribution in the district, it is the AKP (Justice and Development Party) appealed in the Estel region, while the BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) makes itself apparent in the Dörtyol Square area.

The disappointment caused by the corruption files of the present mayor of Midyat, ?ehmus Nas?ro?lu, who shadily took the lead in 2009’s local elections and has come up for reelection for 2014 March’s elections, and his failure to meet the demands of residents, leads to an expectation of BDP’s definitive achievement in the Estel region in the local elections.

The district of Midyat, located in the region of Turabidin which means the ‘mountain, place of worshippers’ in Syriac and Arabic sources, and includes the districts of Hasankeyf, Nusaybin and ?dil as well, is a mosaic of peoples and beliefs, of Kurds, Syriacs, M?hellemi community, Ezidis, Muslims and Christians, with its history of settlement dating back to 7000s B.C. All communities and peoples living in Midyat are the native peoples of these lands. None of these communities settled this territory later than the other.

They all have handed down their languages and cultural identities up until today, despite having experienced some changes with the influence of the religions that emerged after the Kamerilik (lunar worship) and ?emsilik (solar worship), which are among the first forms of religion.

The history of the community in Midyat, concerning whom various allegations are put forward as to their origin, whether M?hellemi or Arab, dates back to the Akkadians. In his book Kurdistan Manifest, Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan stated that the M?hellemis are the grandchildren of the Akkadians.

With its distinctive dialect and economic social stance, the M?hellemi community has a distinctive place in the Arab identity which is a more comprehensive concept. It is also known that the Turabidin region hosted the M?hellemi Empire till 1920’s.

The demographic structure in Midyat experienced a significant change after the genocide in 1915, witnessing an increase in the population of Kurdish Muslims and a decrease in that of Christian, Syriac, Armenian and Ezidi communities. A great number of Syriacs migrated from Midyat in 1950, 60 and 70’s. There are some 500 Syriacs in the district now.

We can conveniently say that it is the BDP that is conducting the most active electoral campaign in Midyat, it is the single party that has held a rally in the district so far prior to the elections, and covered the streets with its colors and flags. Members of the electoral commissions formed by the BDP are often visiting villages and towns and telling people about their projects.

Filiz I??k and sociologist ?lhan Bayar have been elected the co-mayoral candidates of the BDP for Midyat.

Apart from the BDP, it is only the AKP and HÜDA-PAR that will be standing for the local election in March. Other parties will not participate this year’s elections, just like what they did in previous terms.

The candidate the AKP has presented for Midyat is ?ehmus Nas?ro?lu who is holding the office for the last three terms.

Nas?ro?lu is said to be involved in 11 separate cases corruption and stands out due to his discriminative approach against the Midyat region hosting Kurds and Syriacs.

HÜDA-PAR on the other hand has no grassroot nor claims in the district.

The results of Midyat’s previous local elections of 29 March 2009 are as follows;

DP % 40,57 7.488

DTP % 35,33 6.520

AKP % 17,14 3.164

ANAP % 3,0  569

SP % 3,03 559

BTP % 0,30 56

MHP % 0,30  56

CHP % 0,19  35

BGM % 0,04 8