UNESCO’s opportunity for Iran to fix the shortcomings of the “Masoleh” case

Except for the caravanserais, Iran has two cases of “joining the forests of Dizmar to the forests of Hyrkani”. And ” Cultural landscape of Masoleh at the Riyadh meeting UNESCO presented that it was proposed by UNESCO that the Dizmar forest was submitted to UNESCO in the form of the Arsbaran case, and the challenging case of “Cultural Landscape of Masuleh” also faced many objections from the representative of ICOMUS, and it was said that there are not enough documents and documents on the case, and as a result, the opinion of ICOMUS It was decided that this case should not be accepted in the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, and it requested defer (resolve the defects in the case and review in the meetings of the following years) and reefer (resolve a minor defect and review without a turn) and in response to the defense, it said that there is an opportunity to review There is no file.

Nevertheless, the representatives of the countries of Oman, UAE, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria commented in defense of this case and requested the appeal of ICOMOS. Most of the attention of the representatives of these countries was on the historical-Islamic structure of Masuleh.

Also, the representative of Japan, despite having a positive opinion on Masuleh’s tourism attractions, also made objections to this case and pointed out that there have been many discussions between Iran and ICOMOS about this case. In this regard, the representative of Russia in UNESCO reminded that the problems of ICOMUS mostly go back to the Corona era and the limited communication, which caused doubts in the content. Finally, the representatives of countries such as Greece, India, Italy, Argentina and Thailand, as well as Japan, emphasized that it is necessary to reflect more on this case and defer the file (fixing the defects and completing the file for the next UNESCO meetings) so that its documents and documents be completed

Rasul Watandoost, representative of Iran’s cultural heritage in UNESCO, said in defense of this case: Iran has sent many documents. We found out that Icomos is satisfied with the management and protection of Masuleh. He also invited ICOMOS to travel to Iran and Masoleh and observe the documents closely.

Vatandoost, after the comments of the countries and ICOMOS, proposed a different case for the cultural landscape of Masoleh.

The cultural landscape of Masuleh has been on the “waiting list” of UNESCO’s World Heritage since 2007, and according to the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts, in terms of protection and management, it has acceptable conditions for nomination to the World Heritage List. Therefore, the proposed file of “Masoleh cultural landscape” was sent to the secretariat of the UNESCO World Heritage Center in 1400 according to the advisory opinion and the approval of the National Council for the Registration of Works to be reviewed at the 2023 meeting.

The field evaluation of the Masuleh case was carried out by the World Council of Historical Textures and Monuments (ICOMOS) in the summer of 1401 by a UNESCO expert. The UNESCO evaluator’s report also had positive aspects. Naime Benkari, the UNESCO assessor who came to Iran in October 1401, after examining Masuleh, said: “Masoleh has a lot of good values ​​in terms of architecture and besides that, the human aspect is remarkable.” He also stated: “Before Icomos gave me the Masoleh case, I had no knowledge about it, and after reading this case, I became interested in it, and when I came to Iran and saw this city up close, I realized that I only saw the cover of the book. I have read and discovered new pages of Masuleh and it was recorded in my mind.

Nevertheless, in September 1402, a few weeks before the start of the 45th UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a report attributed to the World Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), UNESCO’s advisory arm, was published in the World Heritage Register files, which wrote “Masoleh has the capacity to register globally, but the compiled file submitted to UNESCO in 2021 contains fundamental flaws, and for this reason, ICOMOS requests the rejection of Masoleh’s global registration file.”

But the answer of the former Director General of Registration of Works and Preservation and Restoration of Spiritual and Natural Heritage of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts who also played a role in the preparation of the cultural landscape file of Masuleh and is currently present at the UNESCO meeting, in UNESCO’s opinion, “the doubts raised about the opinion of ICOMUS regarding the case of Masuleh, go back to the ambiguities that ICOMUS apparently had due to the fact that it was not possible to fully communicate with the experts who prepared the file , has entered Obviously, this issue raised concerns for raising the issue of world registration of Masuleh in the World Heritage Committee, therefore, last month, a delegation of experts in the field of world registration was sent to UNESCO by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts, and the consultations It was necessary to clarify the values ​​of the cultural landscape of Masuleh and to resolve the ambiguities raised with the members of the World Heritage Committee.