Archaeology Policy in Southwest Asia
Within the nations of Northern Africa and southwest Asia, there have been many challenges posed by civilians towards Government policies and its outcomes. This essay will not dive into the specifics of each country’s challenges, yet it will focus on one specific element of the aftermath of civil disobedience in events like the Arab Springs. From these events, they maintain the element of developing specific social identity and cohesion. Specifically, the focus of this essay will be on the differences between how Egypt and Turkey have conducted social policies and the outcome of these actions.
Many foreign observers of Egypt may not realize that for Egypt’s visitor economy, it was under great strain due to the challenges of the new millennium and previous governmental policy. For example, there was a serious attack in 1997 near Luxor, Egypt that killed 62 people. This, along with the events of a post 9/11 world; caused a lot of worry about safety while traveling and created negative thinking about traveling to the Northern African, and the Southwest Asian region in general. This caused great strain to the profits of the tourism economy of Egypt and thus the budgets of the Egyptian government for further excavation and analysis of ancient sites was diminished. Accordingly, Ministries under the controversial Hosni Mubarak government took action to try to appease tourists and to promote the findings of Archaeologists of the existing sites and the new sites found in more modern times. This effort was mostly successful and despite the backlash from other issues that led to Mubarek being ousted from power in 2011, the policies of the government have largely been supportive of the tourism economy. With exceptional finds such as those of the recent Saqarra tomb and auxiliary structures, the presentation and preservation of antiquities from Egypt seem to be secure financially and in a civil manner in a post global pandemic world.
In the case of Turkey, the Turkish government has been continually consolidated under Recip Tayyip Erdogan; first under the position of prime minister and now while he holds the presidency. Due to this, his cabinet and government have exceptional authority on day to day policy from the top down; in order to make policy. The Turkish government survived largely unscathed from the events of the different Arab Spring movements and despite Erdogan facing challenges from dissidents for different policies such as increasing the role of religion in state, Erdogan’s top down approach has maintained a steady course in contrast to other governments in the region. This consistent course appears to be not beneficial for the average person and a lot of money is being spent on paying debt and policies with marginal returns; because of this, the Turkish Lira has been descending through hyperinflation and the government has had to choose what to invest their limited funds in. From its decision makers, the Turkish government does not find conducting Archaeology to be a significant item to do and thus many major sites of multiple cultures have not been thoroughly investigated into.
Some cultural sites that exist in Turkey include: Roman, Greek, Byzantine and of course Turkish sites. The Government has decided to not investigate further and in some cases even manipulated sites for their own gain. One notable site is the Hagia Sofia, a Christian Church has been converted into a Mosque in modern times and Gobekli Tepe, one of the significant sites of pre-Turkic culture has been largely ignored and has only been excavated to a minor extent. The reason this matters is because the morale in Turkey’s population appears to be low given what accurate information one can attain and having cultural victories gives legitimacy to a government. The Turkish government which plays a balancing act between multiple world powers with the Bosporus could greatly improve its standing in the international community and at home by investigating into its own backyard. One can compare the idea of this to how when one visits France, UK, or Germany; it is common to see the great architecture and artwork when one is there. Very few questions come forward of the long term stability of these western nations. The funding involved to increase a nation’s appearance is minor and the dividends are vast to present yourself as strong in the international community.
With the contrast of the Turkish and Egyptian Archaeology policies, one can extrapolate that it is crucial to search for social victories when managing a nation. When a country has supported its national identity by positive, constructive developments; it is much more likely to stay in power than one that does not listen to the people when they call for change.
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