On behalf of UNESCO Iraq Office Director, Mr. Djelid, I pleased to inform you about the steps undertaken by our Office in response to your very first alarming message concerning the wide scale development in Kurdistan that, much to all's regret, is sometimes in contradiction with the cultural heritage protection.
UNESCO Iraq Office was first informed of your message in February 2009 through our colleagues from World Heritage Center at UNESCO HQs. UNESCO Iraq contacted the Ministry of Tourism of Kurdistan which is in charge to the overall protection of the cultural heritage and we expressed them our concern based on the alarming news coming from the civil society. Moreover, we encouraged the Ministry of Tourism to follow the Iraqi Law for the protection of heritage, Law 55 of 2002 which has all required legal conditions for the protection of heritage site and its perimeter (article 9 and 15).
On the other side, UNESCO in cooperation with the High Commission for the Erbil Citadel Revitalization (HCECR) organized an awareness workshop on the regulation for the World Heritage (June 2009). As you are certainly aware, KRG authorities are willing to have Erbil Citadel on the World Heritage List and UNESCO had to explain the procedure as well as the requirements for the successful nomination process. Nomination process is a long process and the first step is to have the site on the Tentative List which should be submitted to the World Heritage Center by Central Government. Also the nomination process requires clear identification of the buffer zone for the potential world heritage site and in the case of Erbil Citadel the buffer zone is in the surrounding downtown that was, as you rightly indicated in your message, subject of some controversial development. UNESCO is working with all relevant stakeholders to establish clear guidelines for the urban development within the buffer zone, and to identify sub-zoning for 1) protection and 2) development in that buffer zone that is extremely rich in heritage.
As you certainly understand, UNESCO cannot protect every single heritage site in Kurdistan. Nevertheless, our mandate and our core mission are to strengthen capacities of KRG authorities to ensure the protection of cultural heritage, its conservation and its enfacement. We are very much committed to associate experts from Kurdistan to every single training activity organized to meet the above mentioned goal. We already trained legal advisers of the Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Tourism of Kurdistan to be familiar with international but also national standards of heritage protection. We commissioned a detailed survey of Museum sector of Kurdistan to devise a national action plan for its improvement. We are constantly advocating and we will continue to advocate with KRG authorities to respect Iraqi Heritage Law and to take into consideration the heritage dimension for development projects. It goes without saying that UNESCO is working on the preparation of Erbil Citadel Conservation Master Plan and on the conservation planning for the 10 pilot buildings' restoration within the citadel.
UNESCO Iraq Office remains at your disposal for any complementary information.
Sincerely yours,
Tamar Teneishvili (Ms)
Culture Programme Specialist for Iraq, Jordan and Syria