Midyat governor courts diaspora Assyrians with new housing development
The governor of Midyat in southeast Turkey's Tur Abdin Region hopes a new housing project on the city’s outskirts will bring diaspora Assyrians back to invest.
The Yeni Midyat Projesi (The New Midyat Project) is being designed with diaspora Assyrians in mind. "The project aims to encourage the return of our Assyrian citizens living abroad and to create a more comfortable environment, enabling them to live a modern life deeply rooted in Midyat's history," the official project folder states in Turkish and English.
To gauge interest in the project, the governor of Midyat, Veysi Şahin, himself a member of the Mhalami Muslim community, recently traveled to the Swedish city of Södertälje, where he presented the plans to the local Assyrian community, many of whom trace their roots to Midyat.
During the meeting, Şahin lamented that a growing number of diaspora Assyrians are turning to Mediterranean countries instead of their ancestral homeland. "We know that many Assyrians have started buying houses in Spain. We want them to instead come and invest in Midyat," he told the audience gathered at the community hall of Saint Jacob of Nisibin Church in Södertälje.
According to the governor, the new development aims to make it easier for diaspora Assyrians to find suitable housing, as many Assyrian villages, including Midyat’s old town, have been designated protected heritage sites, making permits for new construction or renovation difficult to obtain.
In the project folder, the initiative is described as a tribute to the region’s history of coexistence: "With this project, mosques and churches will once again stand side by side in Midyat, the City of Religions and Languages, ensuring the continuation of its centuries-old tradition of tolerance." The language glosses over the darker chapters of the region’s past – marked by genocide, massacres, unresolved killings, discrimination, and intolerance – that left the area almost devoid of its indigenous Assyrian population.
The development is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change and TOKI, the Housing Development Administration of Turkey, in cooperation with the municipality of Midyat. The project will cover a total area of 230,000 square meters. Despite being promoted as a green development, it will include space for 530 outdoor and 490 indoor parking lots.
The Assyria Post
