‘It’s the culture, the education, that were deliberately destroyed, attacked, in a country with a thousands-year-old history’
Wandering Baghdad’s recently renovated legendary book street, the UN’s cultural chief pledged on Monday firm support for the rebuilding of Iraq, whose rich heritage has been ravaged by conflict.
Iraq is the cradle of civilizations, where writing and the first cities emerged, but decades of unrest have left many priceless cultural treasures damaged or obliterated. Years of war and insurgency have taken a heavy toll on the many Mesopotamian, Islamic, and Christian treasures in a country home to six UNESCO World Heritage sites.
“It’s the culture, the education, that were deliberately destroyed, attacked, in a country with a thousands-year-old history,” Audrey Azoulay, director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, told AFP.
She spoke during a visit to Mutanabbi Street, which has long drawn bibliophiles and is named after the celebrated 10th-century poet Abul Tayeb Mutanabbi.
The mission of Azoulay came ahead of the 20th anniversary later this month of the U.S.-led invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein but ushered in the bloodiest period in Iraqi history.
Antiquities have been extensively looted – often by organized crime groups – and many treasures were stolen from the national museum in the capital Baghdad. More damage was done during the brutal rise of the Islamic State (IS) group a decade later, and the battle to dislodge it devastated large areas in the northern city of Mosul.
Even Mutanabbi Street, a center of intellectual life with its cafes and books, could not escape the pain. In March 2007, a suicide car bomb killed 30 people and wounded 60 others there.
“These heartbreaks of war, of occupation by IS, deeply bruised Iraqi society,” Azoulay said. “Because of that, UNESCO is committed like nowhere else to mobilize the international community and act directly on the ground.”
