How UN summit disappointed its Turkish hosts

On May 27, Al-Monitor ran a vivid report about the massive destruction from Turkish security operations in the country’s mainly Kurdish southeast. The story described how people gathered on tall buildings in Diyarbakir’s ancient district of Sur, hoping to locate their homes intact in devastated neighborhoods that are still off-limits to residents, while others scrambled to recover usable belongings or the bodies of relatives. According to the Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), at least 550 civilians have been killed and 350,000 people displaced since July 2015, when Ankara launched a massive crackdown to purge Kurdish militants entrenched in residential areas across the southeast.

While the people of Sur reeled from the shock of their unrecognizable streets, another Turkish city, Istanbul, hosted the first World Humanitarian Summit, which came as a bitter irony and sparked controversy and criticism. The May 23-24 event, organized by the United Nations, was meant to address the world’s growing refugee problem, yet the host government itself had caused the displacement of thousands of its citizens.

In a gesture of protest, renowned Turkish musician and writer Zulfu Livaneli resigned as goodwill ambassador to UNESCO, the UN’s cultural agency, slamming human rights abuses in the southeast and the destruction in Sur, which was only last year added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List. “As the demolition of history is taking place in Sur, hypocrisy dominated the World Humanitarian Summit,” he said. “To pontificate on peace while remaining silent against such violations is a contradiction of the fundamental ideals of UNESCO.”

In remarks to Al-Monitor, Livaneli expressed optimism that his resignation and warnings were bearing fruit, pointing to reports of UNESCO taking action on Sur. Yet the problem goes beyond the protection of historical heritage, with grave human rights violations reported on a daily basis from the southeast.