Abstract
This chapter takes up the case of the Hacı Bektaş Veli Complex in central Anatolia in order to explore heritage in action. In 2012, Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism began the process of nominating the Hacı Bektaş Veli Complex, the most sacred and significant site of worship for Alevis, to the UNESCO World Heritage List. Turkey has long tried to assimilate Alevis, a sizeable, historically rural Muslim minority, in an effort to shape a homogenous, ethnically Turkish and Sunni Muslim citizenry. The state casts Hacı Bektaş, a medieval Sufi mystic and patron saint of the Alevis, as a Turkish humanist, who propounded a philosophy based on tolerance and human love in line with modern, universal human rights doctrine. At the same time, Turkey has come under criticism from the European Union and the wider international community for violating the human rights of Alevis, and other minority groups, within its borders. The Hacı Bektaş Veli heritage site, today run as a state museum, sits awkwardly at the intersection of human rights celebration and violation. This chapter, in response, considers the ethics of World Heritage nomination in conflictual contexts, tracing the role of heritage in the interplay of social inclusion and exclusion in Turkey and beyond.
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Notes
- 1.
The Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity describes the defense of cultural diversity as an ethical imperative which implies a commitment to human rights. It further declares that cultural rights are an integral part of human rights. Continuing in this vein, UNESCO’s 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions promotes cultural diversity as a “defining characteristic of humanity” that is important “for the full realization of human rights.”
- 2.
A typical Cem ceremony involves lectures on the Alevi belief, recitations from the Quran, religious stories, symbolic gestures, mystical songs, and dancing of semah, in which men and women dance together in small groups in circular patterns.
- 3.
- 4.
For instance, the sociologist Ismail Beşikçi’s books were banned and he spent more than 10 years in prison for writing on the state’s organized violence against the Kurds in the 1930s (Bruinessen, 1997). Numerous others have been taken to court over the violation of Article 301 of the Penal Code, “insulting the Turkish national identity,” which may include referring to the Armenian Genocide (including Hrant Dink, Orhan Pamuk, and Elif Şafak).
- 5.
Paragraph 7(vi), Operational Guidelines (UNESCO, 1978).
- 6.
It was considered that including sites associated with scholars, artists, writers, or statesmen could lead to the list becoming “a sort of competitive Honours Board for the famous men of different countries” (in Cameron & Rössler, 2013, p. 36). While leaders in the World Heritage forum acknowledged that an idea may haunt a historic place, it was felt that emphasis should be placed on “concrete” cultural property. The revised criterion read that a site nominated for its associative values must “be directly or tangibly associated with events or with ideas or beliefs of outstanding universal significance (the Committee considered that this criterion should justify inclusion in the List only in exceptional circumstances or in conjunction with other criteria).” Paragraph 18(vi), Operational Guidelines (UNESCO, 1980).
- 7.
This includes the Church of St. Nicholas, the Sümela Monastery in the Black Sea province of Trabzon, and the Surp Haç Church on the island of Akdamar in Lake Van in eastern Turkey.
- 8.
Michel de Certeau defines a strategy as “the calculation (or manipulation) of power relationships that becomes possible as soon as a subject with will and power … can be isolated” (2011, p. 36). Strategies are spatial in that “every ‘strategic’ rationalization seeks first of all to distinguish its ‘own’ place, that is, the place of its own power and will” (2011).
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Acknowledgments
This chapter draws upon two years of fieldwork in Turkey, supported by the U.S. Fulbright Program, the Turkish Cultural Foundation, Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, and the Department of Anthropology at Stanford University. I extend my gratitude to these institutions for their support. Many thanks to Patty Gerstenblith, the Stanford Humanities Center Fellows, the Stanford Heritage Ethics Group, and Maria Fernanda Escallon for comments that contributed to the development of this piece. I would especially like to thank Lynn Meskell, Ian Hodder, and Bruce O’Neill for their support throughout the research and writing process.
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Human, H. (2017). Ethical or Empty Gestures?: World Heritage Nominations in Turkey. In: Silverman, H., Waterton, E., Watson, S. (eds) Heritage in Action. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42870-3_6
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