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Meeting with the Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage of Qatar

Date

04 Jan 2016

Sections

Global Europe
Languages & Culture

As the President of EU – Qatar Parliamentary Friendship Group, I had the pleasure to have a meeting with Dr. Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari, Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage of Qatar, at his invitation.

 

The discussions that we had focused on topics of common interests for both the European Union and Qatar, in the field of culture, especially the way the two can cooperate in protecting world cultural heritage.

In the last year and a half, since Daesh emerged as a major threat for peace and stability in Middle East, we all witnessed an unprecedented aggression towards the cultural and historic heritage of a whole region. The territory under Daesh control has an unmatched historical and cultural global significance. Tigris and Euphrates rivers’ basin is the cradle where the first civilizations emerged and evolved. This space shelters a continuous history that dates back for more than 10.000 years, offering a unique richness of cultural and historic heritage.

Daesh took advantage of this richness and its importance at world level, using UNESCO heritage sites as a background for its sick propaganda and for practicing its twisted mix of distorted ideology and barbarism. But more importantly, Daesh used this richness for financing its terrorist activities through a vast historic sites loitering combined with well-organized network of cultural and historic artefacts trafficking.

The historic and cultural richness of old Mesopotamia brought to Daesh incomes of more than 100 million dollars a year through illegal trafficking. The ones willing to pay for such artefacts on the black market are ending up financing not only Daesh but also a whole global network of smugglers and organized crime.

In my discussions with Dr. Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari, I encountered a profound and genuine concern regarding the implications of these illegal trafficking with patrimonial objects run by Daesh. Apart from the immediate financial implications, there are long term effects on the chances for a return to peace and normality of the whole region that today is devastated by war. When the violence will end, the people of Iraq and Syria will need to reconnect with symbols that, before this conflict, were the bind offering unity beyond the religious and political differences. The many thousands of years of history, which we witness today in the shape of cultural and historic heritage, is a key element for the process of returning to normality. Protection and preservation of this legacy counts a lot in any plan of offering a future for this region.

Today’s efforts of limiting and reducing illegal trafficking with cultural and historical artefacts are made so much more difficult because of the fact that all Daesh controlled territory are affected by a campaign of looting of historical sites, especially in Palmira and Nimrud areas. These savage acts feed the trafficking network thousands of patrimonial items that have never been registered and catalogued, making their identification and tracking almost impossible.

A key element in the collaboration between the European Union and Qatar on stopping this illegal trafficking is the reciprocal active information and communication. The efforts of thousands of historians and curators from all over the world, who are trying to identify and retrieve the artefacts sold on the black market, could be eased by a better access to information and data bases.

Another instrument that can be used is roughening of penalties for those who are proven to provide for and support these trafficking networks. The looting of historical sites, especially those that are part of UNESCO World Heritage, is a crime against humanity and this must be acknowledged.

Having this situation, I consider Dr. Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari candidature for the UNESCO General-Director position as a better chance in pushing forward to come up with solutions for these problems. To have a person in that lead position who is very experienced and familiar to the most difficult issues that the world cultural heritage have seen in the last 70 years, could be in the advantage of all. It is a difficult time, where the tools that were created for a normal world are overwhelmed by the barbaric actions of a terrorist group that doesn’t respect not even the most sacred taboos. The Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage of Qatar can bring in new energies in the fight for protection and preservation of a heritage that belongs to all of us. For these reasons, Dr. Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari has both my trust as well as the support of the whole EU – Qatar Parliamentary Friendship Group.

At the end of the discussions held in the office of Dr. Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari, I was reassured that the Qatari authorities will continue to be a determined partner for European Union and for all the other countries and institutions involved in the global effort to limit the illegal trafficking with artefacts belonging to the cultural and historic heritage. This plague can be brought to an end just by perseverance, determination and a clear understanding of the profound effects of its looting and destruction.

  

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