“We Are Young, Hopeful about the Future and We Love Our City”

Umutla Bakanlar Topluluğu (Looking with Hope Community) is an initiative founded by youngsters that love Diyarbakır.

The community aims to promote the city and organize long-term projects on media, environment and literature with the young people of Diyarbakır. They also publish a fanzine called “Umut Fanzin” (Hope Fanzine) and distribute it among high school students. We interviewed Emrullah Saruhan, one of the founders of the initiative.

Could you briefly tell about yourself first?

I was born in Bismil, which is between Diyarbakır and Batman. I lived in a village of Bismil since I was 18 and left for Gaziantep to study at university. Law, media and civil society are fields that I am interested in. I know that these three are more or less effective in the region I live. That’s why; I have always been a part of them. I study law and take an active part in media and civil society studies.

How was Umutla Bakanlar Topluluğu born?

Before founding the community, we started a project called Umutla Bak (Look with Hope) on social media. We did not get funded at all. We published a magazine which covered youngsters’ hopes and dreams as texts, poems or paintings. The income from the magazine provided a resource for our future works.

In time, we realized that it was not sustainable at all and founded the community as ten persons. We aim to organize scientific, social and cultural events in Diyarbakır; develop sustainable education projects; make collaborations with associations that have similar goals. We support any kind of initiative aimed at raising awareness on arts, culture and science of youngsters in Diyarbakır.

Are you working on any specific issue or organizing any event right now?

We organize a poetry and photography contest about Diyarbakır and its culture. By the means of photography, we aim to raise awareness and sensitivity about Diyarbakır and its history, nature, cultural assets. By poetry, we aim to encourage people of Diyarbakır to be engaged more in literature and introduce Diyarbakır to the world with its own language and soul.