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Badinan Gate after renovation on May 7, 2024. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - With funding from the United States, the renovation of the Badinan Gate archaeological site in Duhok province was officially completed on Tuesday.
US Consul General to Erbil Mark Stroh attended the official opening of the gate in Amedi town. He announced that Washington had provided $750,000 "to help bring this cultural treasure back to its former glory."
“I am so pleased to see first hand here today the results of the collaboration between Columbia University and our local partners,” he told reporters.
“In the face of violent Daesh ideology, which had sought to destroy any trace of interfaith cooperation, the Badinan Gate is now well-placed to tell the story for another thousand years, helping ensure that future generations remember that Amedi, in the broader region, has for centuries been and will always be a refuge for religious coexistence and freedom,” he added.
The gate was constructed during the Kurdish Badinan Emirate (1376-1843), a period when Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived harmoniously in the mountains of what is now northern Duhok province. At that time, this gate served as the sole entrance to Amedi.
Previously, Amedi had been part of the Assyrian Empire.
Hassan Ahmed, Director of the Kurdistan Archeological Organization, who participated in the renovation, told Rudaw’s Naif Ramazan that many American experts contributed to the project.
“We applied the highest international standards throughout the process,” he stated.
“Our primary objective, along with renovating the gate, was to restore its historical narrative because it had been lost,” he explained. When the gate lost its original form, it also lost its historical narrative because some of the symbols inscribed on it were damaged or lost.
Stroh also told reporters on Tuesday that the US investment in the project is “a testament to a relationship with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq that has never been stronger. We are committed to this Region and we are not going anywhere.”
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