Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality organised a “Exchange Market” event to draw attention to consumer culture and to strengthen solidarity. Co-Mayors Serra Bucak and Doğan Hatun visited the Exchange Market and spoke with residents.

In cooperation with the Department of Climate Change and Zero Waste and the Amed Ecology Association, the “Exchange Market” was held under the motto “As we consume, we are exhausted; by sharing, we grow” in order to promote sharing as an alternative to a culture of consumption.

At the Exchange Market in Sümerpark, a wide range of items were on offer, from clothing and technological products to books, magazines, toys and jewellery. Residents were able to exchange the items they had brought with them for other items they needed.

Residents showed keen interest in the event organised by the Department of Climate Change and Zero Waste to draw attention to consumer culture and to foster social solidarity.

Co-Mayors toured the Exchange Market

Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayors Serra Bucak and Doğan Hatun, together with Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipal Council (DBB Council) Co-Spokesperson Demet Ceylan and council members, visited the Exchange Market and received information about the event from the relevant units. Touring the Exchange Market, the Co-Mayors also talked with residents.

‘Our aim is to draw attention to consumption habits’

Providing information about the Exchange Market, Head of the Department of Climate Change and Zero Waste, Evin Dinar, underlined that, together with the Ecology Association, they aimed to draw attention to consumption habits through the Exchange Market. Noting that they sought to revitalise social solidarity and a culture of communal living, Dinar said:

“Today everyone brought and displayed items they no longer use and which are surplus to their needs, from books to toys, from kitchen utensils to clothes and garments. Those in need were able to obtain these items here. The exchange and solidarity market serves this purpose.”

Exchange and solidarity markets

Çilem Akkaya from the Amed Ecology Association stated that they organised the Exchange Market in order to remind people of a tradition that existed many years ago. Akkaya recalled that, in periods when the capitalist system was not yet widespread, exchange and solidarity markets were held in villages, neighbourhoods and cities, and noted that these markets also functioned as spaces of solidarity. Akkaya continued:

“People used to come together and exchange things with one another; this was not only a piece of clothing or a garment – sometimes it could be a seed. Sometimes it could be flour or bread, and people would trade these. Today, the consumption habits imposed on us by the capitalist system have spiralled out of control. We are now in a period in which we are encouraged to consume more through campaigns such as ‘three for the price of one’. With this Exchange Market, we wanted to show people how constantly consuming more in fact consumes us.”