Dear CIMCIM community,

On 6 and 20 February, earthquakes struck southern and central Turkey and northern and western Syria, causing more than 46.000 victims and immeasurable damage to buildings and infrastructures.

After a report of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, translated by the American Research Institute in Turkey, the majority of state museums seems to have suffered no relevant damage, while sites as the Gaziantep Castle have been heavily impacted.

ICOM released a statement and CIMCIM has contacted Murat Alihan, CIMCIM Board member and staff at the only museum member in those regions (Nilüfer Municipality Dr. Hüseyin Parkan Sanlıkol Musical Instruments Museum) and they reported to be safe and not having been impacted by the earthquake.

Some emergency guidelines, manuals and toolkits can be found on the ICCROM website, notably:
Endangered Heritage: Emergency Evacuation of Heritage Collections
Arabic | English | Farsi | French | Georgian | German | Italian | Japanese | Nepali | Portuguese | Russian | Spanish | Turkish | Ukrainian First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis – Handbook
Arabic | English | French | Portuguese | Japanese | Turkish | Spanish | Dari | Georgian
First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis – Toolkit   
Arabic | English | French | Portuguese | Turkish | Japanese | Turkish | Spanish | Dari | Georgian

CIMCIM expresses its deep condolences to the families of the victims and invite museum and collections of instruments and music in Turkey and Syria to contact us. Also, as CIMICM will stay in correspondence via ICOM to see if our committee can be of assistance in any way to Turkish and Syrian institutions and their aid.

On behalf of the CIMCIM Board,
Emanuele Marconi
Vice-Chair

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