Etiket heritage

Unesco denies report that Istanbul not on Endangered Heritage List

Is Istanbul’s historical areas are going to remain on UNESCO’s World Heritage List or not was one of the questions discussed between the authorities and experts critical of the municipal administration’s policies that they claim are destroying the centuries-old monuments and neighborhoods. Recently a dispatch from the semi-official Anatolian Agency datelined Paris brought the issue to foreground once again. The dispatch quoted a UNESCO official as saying that Istanbul was not among the sites that might be knocked off the World Heritage List. The dispatch was widely used by the Turkish newspapers with headlines declaring, “UNESCO announces, Istanbul not on the endangered heritage list.” News, etc. contacted UNESCO directly and found out that no such announcement was made. UNESCO’s Press Officer Cathy Nolan replying to News, etc. said, “I spoke to Ms Rossler (The official in charge of the World Heritage List’s North America and Europe section) after receiving your message and she denied emphatically and categorically that any official statement had been made by UNESCO concerning Istanbul and whether or not its status would be discussed at the next World Heritage committee meeting. As you say, it is UNESCO’s policy not to comment on such matters before the meeting.” Asked for further clarification of the matter, Nolan sent a second mail that said: “Dear Gokhan Tan, Excuse me if I was not sufficiently clear. UNESCO has not made any statement about the possible outcome of any discussion regarding Istanbul during the next committee meeting. This is what I was told by the World Heritage Centre yesterday. We do not know the source of these headlines, but as far as the UNESCO World Heritage Centre is concerned, they are not based on fact.” World Heritage Committee will hold its 34th session in Brazil on August 3rd. The committee is composed […]

Is UNESCO going to declare Istanbul “endangered heritage”?

News, Etc. Demolition of the historic Gypsy neighborhood, Sulukule, plans to build an underground metro line across the Golden Horn, a hotel construction over the ruins of the Grand Palace of the Byzantine Empire and other similar projects that impair Istanbul’s historical and cultural heritage might cause UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization) to put the city on its list of World Heritage Sites in Danger. During the UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee meeting in Spain, the organization gave Turkey a respite until February 2010 to rectify its position in safeguarding Istanbul’s cultural and social heritage and decided to keep the city on its list of World Heritage Sites until then. Turkey is expected to submit a report to the committee’s next meeting in Argentina on work it is planning to do to protect the historical sites and monuments. This is the third time UNESCO is giving Turkey additional time to take measures so that Istanbul is not transferred to the list of Heritage Sites in Danger. Istanbul was included in the list of World Heritage Sites in 1985 but in 2006 and then in 2008 the Committee considered to take the city out of the list because of Turkey’s failure to protect the city’s historical sites and social characteristics. Feyzullah Ozcan, Istanbul’s deputy governor, who represented Turkey at the meeting in Spain said that the decision was “the best for Turkey at this stage.” “We have not been put on the list of World Heritage Sites in Danger,” he added. To be on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites is a prestigious thing, Ozcan said. “It gives you respectability. But this is a political choice. You can say ‘We do not have to be on that list,’ but this is a decision that belongs to our administration,” he […]