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ALLIANOI ABOUT TO BE SACRIFICED!
sep 20
Turkish NGO “Allianoi Initiative” led by Professor Ahmet Yaraş, have witnessed the “burying” of Allianoi: only the tops of Allianoi’s excavated walls and columns can be seen poking through as the site is being buried under sand! Workers employed by the Turkish State Waterworks Directorate are filling this outstanding Roman archaeological site with sand before submerging it under the planned reservoir behind the Yortanli irrigation dam whose effective life-span is not expected to exceed 50 years. EN Executive President Denis de Kergorlay wrote to top Turkish Government officials to urge a stop to the destruction of Allianoi and a move to develop the area for sustainable cultural and health tourism.
In response to this alarming development, Europa Nostra immediately wrote our protests to the leading Turkish political figures – the President, Prime Minister, Minister of Culture and Tourism and Minister in charge of EU Affairs - to save the site of Allianoi, located near Bergama in western Turkey. We also duly informed the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and UNESCO of our plea. We once again re-iterated our firm belief that should Allianoi eventually disappear under sand and water, this would constitute a breach of international regulations and covenants signed by Turkey, and would be even contrary to the country’s own court injunctions. This latest plea continues Europa Nostra’s long-standing campaign in support of saving this important archaeological excavation-in-progress and finding alternative solutions to save the remains of this Roman thermal bath and surrounding spa. Already back in 2007, Europa Nostra joined forces with ICOMOS and the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) to launch a forceful public appeal to save the site.
So far, the combined local, national and European campaigns managed to delay the activation of the dam. We now fear that the moment when Allianoi risks to disappear under sand and water is becoming closer and closer.
Documents
Letter to the President of Turkey
Europa Nostra's opinion article published in The Art Newspaper - October 2010
Links
