ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – UNESCO’s World Heritage Day was marked in the Kurdistan Region for the first time on Monday with a tribute to the Kurdish Peshmerga, alongside exhibits of Kurdish costumes from the different parts of Kurdistan. “Heritage is the identity of our nation and protecting it is everyone’s duty,” said Rafiq Rasoul, director of Antiquities and Heritage at the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), kicking off the event. “Our main aim was to make people aware about the importance of our heritages and protecting them,” Rasoul said. “We held this ceremony alongside with the heritage department of Salahadin University and the theater department of fine arts of the university,” he added. “We have many heritage sites in the Kurdistan Region and we held this event to memorize (memorialize) the day,” Rasoul told Rudaw English. The World Heritage Day is meant to honor international monuments and sites. In Kurdistan, the site most worthy of mention is The Citadel, regarded as the oldest continually inhabited site in the world. It was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 2014. “We held this event for the first time in Kurdistan Region to tell people about the importance of our nation’s clothes, archeological sites in Kurdistan,” Kanar Osman, Organizer of the event, said. Displaying traditional Kurdish costumes from the different parts of Kurdistan was another part of the event, which ended with a play on the significance of the Peshmerga fight against ISIS and Kurdish ambitions of independence.
