Preservation and Sustainability of Traditional Rural Areas Which Were Ethnically Diverse in the Past: Example of the Village of Germuş in Şanlıurfa

Abstract

The village of Germuş is an old settlement which is today registered as a neighborhood under the town of Haliliye in the city of Şanlıurfa. It was an Armenian village in the 1900s and it remained abandoned for a while after the Armenians immigrated to Mosul and Aleppo in 1915. After the establishment of the Turkish Republic, the village was donated by Atatürk to Iraqi Uceymi Sadun Pasha, who contributed greatly to the liberation of Urfa. The village of Germuş is important not only because of its archaeological sites, its church, and traditional house fabric but also for the continuity of the village life which is remarkable in terms of social sustainability. Germus Village has entered a period of rapid deterioration today. For this reason, it is of great importance to protect and sustain it and transfer it to future generations. The purpose of this article is to document the tangible and intangible cultural heritage values and conservation problems of the Germus Village, which has not undergone comprehensive conservation-documentation work, and to provide some suggestions for the protection and sustainability of the heritage of the village. The first step of this research was to document the history of the village from written and oral sources through observations and interviews. In the second stage, traditional buildings in the village were identified and documented, and conservation problems were determined. In the third stage, some solutions for the protection and sustainability of the historical rural fabric have been suggested. The results of this study will contribute to the documentation and sustainability of the cultural heritage and the plans for preservation of this heritage.