Hosap Castle 60 km east from Wan.
The valleys of Euphrat and Tigris are the cradle of humankind. When our nomad ancestors thousands years ago settled down and learned to cultivate land it happened here. The history of the civilizations which existed in this area is heritage of the whole world.
There is a program to protect the most valuable historical monuments in the world. It is UNESCO World Heritage Program. UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Guess whether such places where the Kurds live nowadays are on the list of World Heritage Program! Correct - there is almost none of them. I found one: Nemrut Dag which is in Turkey. Seven years ago Harran and Sanliurfa were accepted on the proposal list of World Heritage Program. From Iraq there is in the program for example the fortified city Hatra which is near Ninawa.
Instead of one column I would like to write a book about the historical places in Kurdistan which should be in the UNESCO World Heritage Program. And it would be a thick book!
But here is space to present only one topic so I tell about the castles in Serhat area. For me they have been very impressive but they are not well known even among the Kurds. Serhat is one the Kurdish districts in Turkey. It is located around Wan lake, west from Zagros mountains.
In Wan there is the castle of Wan. The castle area is huge, it covers almost two kilometres long mountain. Once whole the mountain was surrounded by walls but now only parts of them remain. Wan castle is three thousand years old, it has its origin in the Urartuan civilization. Castle mountain dominates the landscape in Wan. It is so huge that I almost did not believe my eyes when I saw it for the first time.
But even bigger surprise was to see how many castles there are in Serhat. Only 25 kilometres east from Wan by the Hakkari road is the next castle, Cavustepe castle. And 35 km east from Cavustepe is the huge Hosap castle. No one knows how old Hosap castle is but it was renovated 1643 by Süleyman Bey. Serhat is an area for ancient castles. I do not know whether there is dozens or hundreds of them.
The castles are creatures of many civilizations. Ani is famous for being the ancient capital of Armenians. But Ani has its roots also in many other civilizations, like the Urartuan, Bysant, Selchuk and Georgian cultures.
I do not know whether the decision makers in the UNESCO World Heritage Program have ever heard about the castles in Serhat. Each castle is unique but even more important aspect to them is the entity what they constitute. This historical heritage must be protected and there must be archaeological research in every castle! Also Kurds and other people who live in Serhat must learn to respect the value of the castles and other historical monuments. Now peasants take their sheep and goats even to most valuable places. They spoil ancient ruins by burning fires to make tea and taking stones to build houses.
Protection of Serhat castles is not a threat to the Republic of Turkey. Rather the opposite, the multicultural history of the country is a richness to all Turkish citizens.
2 comments:
UNESCO's World Heritage Committee's rules on site nomination require that: "Only countries that have signed the World Heritage Convention, pledging to protect their natural and cultural heritage, can submit nomination proposals for properties on their territory to be considered for inclusion in UNESCO’s World Heritage List."
Some or all of the people on the Committee probably have heard of Serhat's castles, but they can only do something about them if Turkey submits them for consideration. I don't know if it has and I don't know enough about them to give an opinion on their worthiness for inclusion, but yeah, they've probably been excluded because, like Ani, they are unwanted sites that serve as inconvenient facts about silenced histories.
I don't know what the economy is like in these sites' areas, but I suspect it would take development as well as education to improve the sites' treatment.
Turkey would have to conserve - and effectively promote - its minority sites, alongside educating them about their cultural heritage and developing their communities, none of which it's appeared very keen to do.
It could instead displace the communities and misrepresent the histories, which it's appeared more than happy to do, but the World Heritage Committee wouldn't be very happy with that.
... or, it could let a poor, ill-educated community ever so slowly destroy its heritage, without getting the cultural value or the long-term economic benefits such opportunities for sustainable tourism provide...
If the things I've heard about state reluctance or even refusal to support cultural tourism as an alternative to the dams is true, it seems likely that it wants to forget these histories and identities too.
Thanks for your message.
Those readers who want to know more about this issue can contact Van Cevder (Van Environment Association). I do not have their contact information now nearby, I repair my study now and all papers are in a mesh. I will add this information later.
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