Irreplaceable Heritage
Earthquake Decimation of Religious Sites in Turkey and Syria
The February 6, 2023 earthquake left incomprehensible damage to heritage sites in Turkey and Syria. Antakya, Turkey, historically known as Antioch, and Aleppo, Syria endured the most significant destruction to sites such as Turkey’s Habib-i Neccar Mosque and Syria’s “sheep tower” of the ancient Aleppo citadel. Caitlin DeSilvey and Rodney Harrison’s “Anticipating Loss: Rethinking Endangerment in Heritage Futures” places heritage under the umbrella of ‘non-renewable resources,’ stating that “heritage assets are irreplaceable.” Turkey and Syria encompass a unique conglomeration of citizens that represent three major religions — Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, and tangible heritage related to each suffered incomprehensible damage.
Christianity
Per an NPR article published on February 25, 2023, Antioch is recognized as an “early cradle of Christianity”, and according to the New Testament, the location in which disciples of Jesus Christ were first referred to as “Christians.” The third-largest city in the Roman Empire after Rome and Alexandria, Antioch was introduced to Christianity by Disciple Peter in 47 AD. NPR points out that Habib Al-Najjar historic mosque, whose namesake was an early convert to Christianity after his meeting Peter, suffered damage to its entrance, minaret, and dome in the earthquake. The same article acknowledged that at the time of publishing, over two weeks post-earthquake, numerous bodies were estimated to still be buried in the rubble left behind.
Islam
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) World Heritage Site listing for the Ancient City of Aleppo details the citadel as a “crossroads of several trade routes” dating back to the 2nd millennium BC, and having been previously ruled by empires such as Hittites, Mongols, and Ottomans. UNESCO states that Aleppo, a 13th century citadel featuring a Great Mosque of the 12th century, contains a “unique urban fabric” due to the “rich and diverse cultures of its successive occupants,” and was threatened by overpopulation, though the listing does not appear to have been updated to reflect the impacts of the earthquake. Over the past decade or more, Syria has been in significant warfare, which led to Aleppo being added to UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger in 2013. Reuters reports that after the war began, the towering citadel was reopened as a World Heritage Site in 2018, but that UNESCO notes “significant damage;…the western tower of the old city has collapsed and several buildings in the souks have been weakened.” UNESCO experts have been mobilized experts that are working with partners such as the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) to take inventory of the damage and work diligently to stabilize the sites in a rapid manner. Celebrations of the Islamic holy month that began on April 20th, known as Ramadan, were significantly impacted. The morale amongst observing Muslims in and around Aleppo was low compared to previous years. Hilal Safarjali stated to Alarabiya that he “cannot say happy Ramadan. We are not okay after the earthquake.” A neighbor of Safarjali suffered the loss of her husband in the earthquake and acknowledged that the holiday would not be the same without him. Ramadan is intended to be a time to gather at dusk to break the daily fast with family and friends, but the displacement due to wreckage after the earthquake has dimmed the light that the celebration usually brings.
Judaism
Antakya’s Jewish Mosque was “scored by fissures,” states an Aljazeera posting on March 6th, exactly one month after the earthquake struck. Yusuf Kocaoglu, a local tour guide, tearfully reminisced on his time in the city before the earthquake with NPR. He describes the first lit road in the world, a creation of ancient Roman dating back 2000 years, and points out that while the synagogue where the first Jews the immigrated to Antakya is still standing, the ancient Torah scroll has been removed from the city for safekeeping. NPR reported that, as it functioned similarly for early Christians, ancient Antioch operated as a sort of hub outside of the Holy Land for early Jews. For over 2,300 years, the Jewish community held a place within the community of Antakya, but its numbers had dwindled to just a dozen or so members by the time the earthquake in February. Surviving members of the Jewish community fled to Istanbul after the earthquake, which took the life of Antakya’s Jewish community president, Saul Cenudioglu, and his wife Fortuna when their apartment building collapsed. Kocaoglu described the Jewish president as “hospitable” and that he enjoyed helping others. The intentions of the Antakya Jewish community for permanent relocation to Istanbul or a return to Antakya is unclear at this point.
Conclusion
Locals in Antakya describe their home as a “city of peace,” per Hasan Sivri, an Arab Alevi. The earthquake devastated both cultural heritage and the populations of Turkey and Syria, but efforts are underway to rebuild on a fast-paced timeline, which comes with the hesitancy of a few surviving members of the effected communities. Corc Kocamahhul stated that “Antakya has disappeared” along with his church, as he became emotional is his description of the suffering that his community is enduring. Turkey’s general director of cultural heritage and museums at Turkey’s culture and tourism ministry, Yahya Coşkun, informed Al Jazeera that assessments of the damage were almost completely less than a month after the earthquake, and that “crucial pieces of the historic buildings were being salvaged,” and that priortity lay with public heritage such as monuments, mosques, churches, and historical houses, then privately owned heritage. Coşkun states that the intentional plans involve original building plans and that “original materials will be used as much as possible.” However, some feel that the priority should be focused on the people first. Emre Can Dağlıoğlu, an editor at the platform Nehna, points out that it is “meaningless to rebuild…religious sites without their people.”
