Iraq Restores Historic Ottoman Site
The Iraqi government is paying more attention to the country’s heritage sites, such as the old Ottoman headquarters of Qishla in Baghdad, writes Omar al-Shaher.
At the restoration site of the Ottoman governor’s headquarters, known as Qishla, near the Tigris River in Baghdad, Iraqi journalist Imad al-Khafaji said, “I feel, as the work proceeds, that we are builders.”
A few months ago, the Iraqi government launched a campaign to restore the building of Qishla, built by the Ottomans in Baghdad in 1855 to serve as the headquarters of their forces. During the 1920s, it was transformed into a serail. Nowadays, it is known as the “old Green Zone,” in reference to the "Green Zone" in Baghdad where many government facilities are located.
“I was glad to see the restoration works moving so fast. Reviving the Baghdadi architecture of this site is an achievement by itself,” Khafaji, a well-known television figure, said. Khafaji believes that letting people into the site before the renovation is completed is a way of showing transparency to the modern world.
“It means that you see things as they grow; they are not accomplished in the shadows. Such works are no longer a clandestine ritual as they used to be,” he added.
