i would like to share the new World Heritage Watch Report 2018 which has been published last week. It highlights Unesco World Heritage (WH) sites across the world which are in danger or destruction.
In this report you can find a report by me and two friends from the Platform No to the Destruction of Sur, based in Diyarbakir (Amed). It describes how the Unesco WH Site of Diyarbakir is still faced with destruction and displacement. It is no more limited to Sur, the old and walled city. The report treats also the commercialisation of the WH site and in this framework the new housing projects.
In the World Heritage report are many other interesting contributions like the one on the Iraqi/Mesopotamian Marshlands which are threatened by the Ilisu dam and other dam projects of the Turkish and Iranian state.
Here you can download the full report
2018-report_whw.pdf
On June 22 and 23, 2018 there will be the International Civil Society Forum on World Heritage in Manama/Bahrain where the report on Sur, the Marshlands etc will be discussed. Just in the following days will be organized the 42nd UNESCO World Heritage Committee (WHC) Session in Manama. At this session also the WH Site “Antique Villages in Northern Syria will be subject. Parts of this site have been bombed by the invading Turkish Army in Januara 2018 in Afrîn/Rojava.
Best regards