campaign to stop the destruction of Tehran’s heritage; Dangerous trading of arcade makers near Golestan Palace

Excavation has been going on for a while in front of Shams-ul-Amara to build a passage. Therefore, following the expansion of illegal constructions in the vicinity of Golestan Palace and Odlajan neighborhood, a group of cultural heritage activists and citizens in a campaign asked the ministers of “Cultural Heritage” and “Road and Urban Development” to immediately issue an order to stop destructive projects and take legal action against the violators. A project that can lead to the withdrawal of Golestan Palace from the UNESCO world list.

The text of this campaign states:

Golestan Palace, as the only registered work of Tehran in the UNESCO world list, and Oudlajan historical context with an area of ​​149 hectares, which was registered in the list of national monuments in 2004, are two valuable and interconnected collections, and any damage to one of them can put the other at risk. Unfortunately, in recent years, with the green light of Tehran Municipality and weak implementation and supervision in the body of institutions, traders have destroyed valuable buildings and constructed passageways and changed their use to commercial.

The organizers of this campaign, referring to the destruction of historical buildings and the construction of commercial arcades in the area of ​​Nasser Khosrow Street and in front of Shams-ul-Amara World Complex, consider the two big projects “Khan Aali Passage (Maravi Center)” and “Middle East Gold Bazaar” as examples of unprofessional measures that are being implemented “without observing technical, environmental, social principles and without providing parking”.

In another part of this campaign, emphasizing the risk of land subsidence and possible damage to the Shams-ul-Amara building, the authorities are asked to issue an order to immediately stop these projects until the technical and legal aspects are clarified. On the other hand, the signatories also point to the existence of the 700-year-old Mehrgerd aqueduct, which is located within the boundaries of Golestan Palace and Oudlajan neighborhood, and they have demanded a ban on excavation within the boundaries of this aqueduct.

In the continuation of this statement, the signatories of the campaign announced about the subjective valuation of buildings and the sudden change of opinion of the Cultural Heritage Department about some historical buildings:

Please urgently issue a serious order and legal follow-up to review all the recent one-year permits in this regard and do not allow the sanctity of the national registration of Oudlajan to become more than a joke of traders. Also, according to the law, order all the buildings that were destroyed this year with the coordination of people, to be rebuilt exactly the same.

At the end of this campaign, it has been emphasized that if the current trend continues, the global reputation of Golestan Palace and Iran’s position in UNESCO will be severely damaged.

The signatories have asked the ministers to immediately formulate a “special plan for the protection and restoration of the historical context of the citadel and Oudlajan”, and with the cooperation of the supervisory institutions, any possible violations and abuses inside and outside the ministry should be decisively dealt with.

This campaign has been registered since yesterday and has reached more than 50% of signatures.