People return their home after escaping from terrorism in eastern and southeastern regions

ANKARA (A.A) - December 22, 2011 - Half of the citizens returned their homes after escaping from the terrorism in their villages in the Eastern and Southeastern Anatolian regions. Directorate General of Management of Provinces told AA that 386,360 citizens left 62,448 residences in Adiyaman, Agri, Batman, Bingol, Bitlis, Diyarbakir, Elazig, Hakkari, Mardin, Mus, Siirt, Sirnak, Tunceli and Van provinces due to security problems in the past. After the government has made investments in these cities since 1999 and security problems were eliminated, half of the citizens who left their villages returned their home. In these regions, Interior Ministry invested in building water, electricity, sewer system and infrastructure, reconstruction of destroyed buildings, repair of school and health buildings as well as providing construction materials for citizens who want to build their own residences, and training citizens with professions to support their lives. The ministry reserved nearly 68.2 million Turkish lira between 1999 and 2008 as a resource for these regions, while the allocation reserved for these regions in the last three years reached 50 million TL. The regions were made attractive for the citizens again by spending a total of 128.3 million TL on the projects so far. Since 1999, 28,384 citizens returned their houses thanks to the projects. Siirt, Agri and Mardin are the provinces where citizens returned most.