H.E. Saywan Barzani. Ambassador of Iraq.
By Roy Lie A Tjam
The names Nineveh and Jonah, are inextricably linked. An impressive exposition on the ancient city of Nineveh has been inaugurated at The National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden featuring more than 250 articrafts from the city of Nineveh. The collection including reliefs, statues, clay tablets, and cylinder seals. Of particular interest are the large reliefs from the city palaces and the reconstruction of one of the rooms in the palace of King Sennacherib.
The exhibition archeological treasures came from more than 25 lenders. Among them renowned institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art N.Y., British Museum, Louvre Museum Paris and the National Museum of Iraq, Bagdad.
Approximately 2,700 years ago, Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire and the largest city in the world. The city was ruled by King Sennacherib and other Kings, all wielded great power.
Pictures are a courtesy of the National Museum of Antiquities of Leiden, for additional images on the opening open the following link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/121611753@N07/albums/72157690097068446
The exhibition is sponsored by the Embassy of the Republic of Iraq in the Netherlands and supported by several national and international organizations.
The official opening of the Ninveh Exposition took place on October 19th in the presence of H.E Jet Bussenmaker, Dutch Minister for Education Culture and Science who performed the official opening. In her inaugural address, Bussenmaker cited the opening lines of the Bible book Jonah, saying: The word of God came to Joʹnah the son of A·mitʹtai, saying: “Get up, go to Ninʹe·veh+ the great city, and proclaim judgment against her, for their wickedness has come to my attention.” 3 But Joʹnah got up to run away from God to Tarʹshish; he went down to Jopʹpa and found a ship going to Tarʹshish. So he paid the fare and went aboard to go with them to Tarʹshish, away from God.
Other speakers at the inaugural ceremony were Mr. Wim Weijland Director of the National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden, a video recorded message by Ms Irira Bokova, DG of UNESCO was screened. Subsequently, the welcome remarks by the Ambassador of Iraq H.E. Saywan Barzani followed. Note a part of Barzani’s welcome remarks:
Guests from all over the world, Allow me first to thank all of you for making this happens. Special thank goes to both: Mr. Wim Weijland and Ms. Anna de Wit of National Museum of Antiquities and their team, Nineveh, Heart of an Ancient Empire has brought us together to celebrate the opening of this Exhibition.
The collaboration of many museums and institution from different parts of the world makes it a success to let everyone have a chance to see, at the same time, the beauty and power of Nineveh and Mesopotamia. Iraq has deep richness in artefacts that are still to be discovered with more than 12,000 registered archaeological sites. Nineveh is not a new name, we all might hear of it when we were younger, its name and/or people have been mentioned in both the Bible and Quran; a great city preserved the past, the past of great ancient empire.
Today as we celebrate this important event, Iraq is about to have its land freed from ISIS (IS) totally. IS tried to destroy the whole Mesopotamian civilization in the region, the destruction to historical sites caused by IS should make us more vigilant, united and cooperative than ever.
Iraq is grateful for the efforts of international community aiming to preserve the cultural heritage in Iraq, among them, the UN Resolution A/69/L.71 in May 2015, strict monitoring system of many UN member-states against smuggling artefacts and returning them back to its country of origin, UNESCO engagement is of value in this venue, not to mention the role of the host country, The Netherlands, Prince Claus Fund is a great example in this field.
Our collective efforts need to have a deep sense of serious and historic responsibility to protect the value of cultural heritage, the heritage that kept the memory of past civilization alive through many centuries. Many inventions of our modern time have roots in past civilizations; let us spare no effort to preserve the cultural heritage that does not belong only to Iraq but to the whole humanity. How great to present the next generations with the gift of enjoying, feeling, seeing and nourishing their memory with the beauty of these artefacts!
Allow me at the end to thank you once again for your valuable presence here with us today, my special thanks to the organizers, it is an honour to congratulate the Dutch government and people for the new government soon to be announced, and now let us all welcome the speech of H.E. Bussemaker Minister of Culture, Education and Science who might have the last chance appearing in public as a Minister of Culture due to the new Cabinet.
The exhibition Nineveh is under the patronage of UNESCO. and runs from 20 October 2017 until 25 March 2018.
