Earthquakes in Syria and Turkey: significant damage to two UNESCO World Heritage sites

The powerful 7.8-magnitude quake and aftershock that killed thousands in Turkey and Syria also inflicted extensive damage on Aleppo’s Old City and Diyarbakir, two World Heritage sites, it said UNESCO.

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In Syria, the UN institution said it was “concerned about the situation in the ancient city of Aleppo”, where “significant damage has been observed in the citadel”, “the western tower of the surrounding wall of the old city ​​collapsed and several buildings in the souks were weakened”.

The ancient city of Aleppo, heavily damaged by four years of fighting there between 2012 and 2016, during which thousands of civilians died, was on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage in Danger.

The UN agency also pointed to Turkey “the collapse of several buildings on the World Heritage Site + Cultural Landscape of Diyarbakır Fortress and Hevsel Gardens +, an important center of the Roman, Sassanid, Byzantine, Islamic periods and Ottoman.

At least three other Turkish World Heritage sites — Göbekli Tepe, Nemrut Dag and Tell d’Arslantepe — may also have been affected by the quake, according to a statement from UNESCO, which seeks to “establish an accurate inventory of the damage” to that these sites are secure and “stabilized”.

More than 3,600 people, according to provisional reports, were killed on Monday in southeastern Turkey and neighboring Syria by a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.8, followed a few hours later by a strong aftershock.

“Our Organization will provide assistance within the framework of its mandate”, affirmed the Director General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, who offered her condolences to the families and loved ones of the disappeared.

Gaziantep Castle in Turkey, part of which was destroyed by the earthquake and whose images have circulated widely on social networks, is not part of the world heritage listed by UNESCO.

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