Homelessness and Homemaking at the Intersection of Public and Private: Nusaybin in Post-Conflict, 2016-2023

This paper examines the homelessness and homemaking experiences of displaced people (DP) in Nusaybin, a border city between Syria and Turkey, following the 2015-2016 armed conflict between the YPS (Yekineyen Parastina Sivil-Civil Defense Units) and Turkish security forces. Focusing particularly on the experiences of displaced women from 2016 to 2023, and on conflicts, coping strategies, solidarity, trust, mother tongue, sense of dignity and agency, the study explores how DP navigate the loss of home, reconstruct new homes, and make meaning in these processes. The key research questions are: How do people respond when they lose their homes? How do they make sense of homelessness and new homemaking practices? The study is based on an analytical distinction between the private and public home and where the latter is limited to the neighborhood level for the article’s purposes. The paper identifies three central claims. First, before the conflict, Nusaybin’s neighborhoods were spaces of safety, trust, and solidarity, where residents freely expressed their identity through their native language, Kurdish. Second, the post-conflict transformation of neighborhoods into fenced social housing, accompanied by militarization, violence, and demographic rupture, resulted in a profound sense of disorientation and loss of dignity among the displaced. These developments deprived residents of a home, both in public and private dimensions. Lastly, DPs’ initiatives to recreate semi-private spaces, such as gardens, and communal public spaces, such as tandooris (communal ovens), within the social housing units, signify acts of agency and reclaim of dignity. These practices reflect the intersection of rural and urban, private and public, illustrating how DP attempt to rebuild their sense of dignity and agency through homemaking. This analysis contributes to the understanding of the complex relationship between homemaking, identity, and agency in post-conflict settings.