Camps as Spatial Practices of Commons - (dairy I)

Lebanese poet (from an Izmir origin family) Ethel Adnan says; everyone is a refugee from somewhere, from some events. In the last two years, refugees from Syria, Iraq who escaped from civil war and violence crossed the border to Turkey and some of them find themselves in refugee camps. The camps are a new phenomena in the Southeast region of Turkey where Arabic and Kurdish are first spoken languages. There are several types of camps. Some are camps run by government, administered by AFAD and UN. For example, Midyat refugee camp that is being designed to host 10thousand people hosts currently around 6000. Most official camps designed as an semi-public prison, guarded by military, controlled by foreign police and administered by AFAD. These kind of camps provide food, cleaning facilities, social activities facilities and has social spaces beside domestic tents. The budget that is provided is huge and for the design and infrastructure is nearly unnecessarily a lot. Just imagine you are building a small town and you need to set water, electricity, living spaces...how would you design and sustain it?

Simple dwelling solutions which could create participatory public spaces or communal spaces can provide better possibilities of hosting these people who are traumatized and longing to go back to their home.

 






Some camps are temporary places that are already existing places such empty bus terminals, art gallery, parks, cultural centers, sport halls, factories....Such spatial usages of existing places create unusual practical solutions for dwellings. These camps are run and administered by local municipalities with generous amount of different aid from several people, families, companies around whole Turkey and abroad. Moreover, containers are more expensive to sustain and not practical than tents. But at the other hand tents are not save in winter. Although I stayed in a tent, it seems to me a good condition for a temporary period. Redesigning existing spaces are much practical in creating better, livable places. Such infrastructure problems as water and electricity cost a lot to establish in a camp but it is also an administrative issue depending on governmental department which are often uneasy. Simple design solution must be possible. Midyat bus terminal camp was one example of how a mobile kitchen was working well and how the structures of shops were covered by families.

There are many Syrian or Kobené, Şengal families who are often dwelling empty construction sides by their own efforts. 

Camps in Suruç for people from Kobené are hosted and run by many volunteers who comes and stay until they pass their duty to newcomers. There are approx. 52 thousand people from Kobené and half it are children. Many stays in the camps and also in villages around the border to Kobené. Rojava Solidarity Association based in Diyarbakır manage the aids and creates often campaign for children and women's needs. Amara cultural center is a abase for volunteers or people who visit and support the Kobené resistance. Very few people are working to organize the incoming aid or create aid campaigns for food and basic other needs. The volunteers do have no money or food too; and they are mostly well educated people who has precarious job conditions. These people don't have enough sleeping places there. I slept in a tent as there where no place to sleep and shower yourself in Suruç. But anyway if you are there you do not think so much about these things. There are depots that receives food and other needs.

The volunteer people in Amara, collaborate with local villages' representatives and they nearly managed to archived all family members information of Kobené people who are either in the tent camps or in villages near the border/around Suruç. Female volunteers' labor is incredible that manages and organized hours of everything nearly without sleeping and eating.

Suruç:

Kobene tent camp: 1471 (tent 257, families 257, babies - 0-3 age: 228)

Rojava tent camp: 1100 (tent 110, families 200, babies 117)

Arin Mirxan tent camp: 2027 (tent 442, families 488, babies 443)

Factory (Suphi Nejat tent camp is in a bulgur factory): 1100 (tent 40, families 170, babies 149)

Kader Ortakkaya tent camp: 4000 (tent 382, families 450, babies 393)

Villages (except Aligör Village): 2407 (families 443, babies 274)

Neighborhoods: 20101 (families 3479, babies 1653)

total: 52.781 (tent 1191, families 8667, babies 5265)

in total from Kobené in/around Urfa: General total: 122.381 people

The biggest issues are: 1. Half of the refugees are children or babies, whose daily basic needs (diapers, special foods) are not met. Similar applies to women. 2. Even though some aid is still arriving, the relief infrastructure itself is in dire need of support: transport, logistics and distribution are organised by volunteers who live under the same conditions as the refugees. Many administrative issues such as recording family members from Kobanê and their health condition are difficult to organise. More human resources are needed. 3. Health volunteers need help and support in terms of medical supplies and wo/man power. 4. The reconstruction effort must be included into long term strategies. (edited by Hito).

The below images are from the art gallery of Sümer Park where the exhibition Never Again! was on display. The exhibition hosted Ezidi people too who had no place to stay. Images by the gallery.

As temporary camp, Midyat Bus Terminal was used in the last months hosting over 600 Ezidi refugees. Here some notes and images.



(the diary from Suruç with bad english. fast written and images by pelin tan.)

further in Turkish in dwelling&architectural context: "Kamp/Mülteci: Çatışma Mekanlarında Mimarlık", Arredamento, Ocak, 2015.