Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayors Serra Bucak and Doğan Hatun met with representatives of ecology and civil society organisations to discuss the protection of the city’s historical and cultural heritage, water basins, the Tigris River (Dicle) and the Hevsel Gardens.

In response to ecologically destructive projects and damage targeting historical and cultural heritage, Co-Mayors Serra Bucak and Doğan Hatun—together with Sur Municipality Co-Mayor Fatma Gulan Önkol—met at the Metropolitan Municipality with representatives of the Diyarbakır Bar Association’s Environment Commission, the Amed Ecology Assembly, and the Assembly’s component local people’s platforms from Lice, Kulp and Dicle, to set out a roadmap for the way ahead.

The meeting addressed: the protection of Diyarbakır’s historical and cultural heritage; safeguarding water basins; the future of the Hevsel Gardens; protection of designated conservation sites; the status of the Tigris River; preservation of the historic city walls; and administrative, legal and on-the-ground lines of action against ecologically destructive projects such as mining and quarrying, hydroelectric power plants (HPPs), wind power plants (WPPs) and solar power plants (SPPs).