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Welcome to the February Special Edition of News in Conservation, the first to be entirely dedicated to a specific theme – Heritage in Conflict Zones.
I am very grateful to the authors who accepted the invitation to contribute with inspiring and thought-provoking articles, often coming from first-hand experiences.
A special thank you goes to the Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums in the person of its Director General Prof. Dr. Maamoun Abdulkarim who graciously agreed to be interviewed for this issue. Given the circumstances of the conflict still raging in Syria we particularly appreciated the opportunity we were afforded with this interview.
As NiC was getting ready for publication, news kept coming in – the destruction of part of the Nineveh fortress in Iraq by Isis extremists for example – and I found it hard to decide where to draw the line. You’ll agree that this is a theme that will need further attention in the future. As noted by some of the authors, the more the international community is involved in raising awareness of issues surrounding the protection of cultural heritage the easier it is for the affected communities to safeguard their history.
In this issue we also bring you the latest news from the IIC AGM that took place last January in London so in case you couldn’t attend, read the reports in the IIC News section.
Barbara Borghese Editor