Challenges concerning the protection of the cultural heritage of Syria during the Syrian crisis
Anupraityte, Laura
This dissertation was written as part of the MA in Art, Law and Economy Studies at the International Hellenic University. Every day the Syrian crisis costs not only increased number of refugees, people deaths, injuries or damaged infrastructure, but also destroyed, damaged or illegally removed Syrian cultural heritage. The main purpose of this work is to investigate how and which Syrian cultural relics have suffered any kind of damage or destruction, to see which international agreements have been breached during these actions and what are the responses from the international community. Data have been collected mostly from media reviews and articles (since the subject is very recent), newspapers, some of the scientific blogs online, articles from scientific magazines, interviews and published reports. An analysis of these data indicates that: 1. number of different Syrian cultural heritage were damaged or destroyed in various ways including bombing, shelling, militias occupation and other; 2. a solid number of international conventions and agreements were breached (including the Hague Convention and other UNESCO Conventions) during these actions; 3.various international and also national organizations have taken urgent actions in order to stop the further destruction of Syrian cultural heritage. The results of this thesis can be used in further analysis of the problems concerning cultural heritage during the Syrian crisis or any other questions related to the protection of culture in times of war.
