İnönü Üniversitesi Kültür ve Sanat Dergisi

Abstract

The study aims to review the possible steps to be taken to build up a universal and contemporary destination at Madimak Hotel, which was the scene of a massacre that took place in Sivas on 2 July, 1993, within the wider context of dark tourism –a form of tourism not focused on generating material proceeds. Doing so, it will review existing practices, and seek to assess the potential contribution of the planned destination to the perspective of Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage within the framework of UNESCO. As an organization with the specific goal of achieving and maintaining universal peace in science, education and culture, UNESCO embraces certain routes in the development of tourism as a means to realize this goal, and has adopted the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage at its 32nd General Conference held in Paris in 2003. Turkey, in its turn, officially ratified the Convention in 2006. The protection of intangible cultural heritage involves studies on oral narratives, performance arts, oral traditions, festivals, rituals, folklore, nature and universe, as well as investigations into the development of social practices. Taking into account the distinct possibility that the people who stayed at Sivas Madimak Hotel in 1993, on the occasion of Pir Sultan Abdal Festival could have generated new elements of intangible cultural heritage through their work on literature, poetry, painting, caricatures, music, folklore and much more in the wider context of art and science of the era, as part of their efforts to enrich, expand, protect and maintain elements already included in the Intangible Cultural Heritage list, such as the Minstrels Tradition, Alevi-Bektashi Ritual of Whirling and more, the need for a multidisciplinary perspective to developing a site of remembrance which could also be considered a tourism asset, becomes even more obvious. The possibility of transforming Sivas Madimak Hotel to a tourism destination, with specific reference to the provisions on relaying elements from one generation to another in the context of the museums proposed and the groups, communities and individuals involved, as provided in the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage as expressed by Turkish National Commission for UNESCO, can be facilitated through a review of existing destinations developed at a universal and national scale in the context of dark tourism. The museums to be discussed in this context not only are valuable assets of dark tourism, but also provide insights into the processes of museum building. The establishment of Sivas Madimak Hotel Museum of Shame as another destination to provide a model regarding world history will stand out in one particular aspect in the light of the model of site of remembrance demanded by the relevant communities: it will be based on an experience with a certain draw in the darker side of tourism, and it involved an event and a group of participants which, by themselves, were about elements of cultural heritage. In the light of these points, efforts to expand the intangible cultural heritage Turkey has in the universal domain of tourism, through a continuous process of development, transformation, and change, can be carried out in tune with tourism doctrines and social area studies methods. The idea proposed in the study, as well as the theoretical destination-building method proposed for the implementation of that idea will, arguably, help limit the loss of reputation suffered by a crucial event involving intangible cultural heritage elements, and reinforce the foundations of tourism rising on international recognition and an awareness of peace.