İstanbul Deputy Governor Cumhur Güven Taşbaşı said yesterday a three-person team from the UNESCO World Heritage Center, headed by Francesco Bandarin, would begin their visit scheduled for May 9-13 with inspections at the 16th century Süleymaniye Mosque, under threat from population pressure, industrial pollution and uncontrolled urbanization.Taşbaşı said the team would also inspect archeological digs in the backyard of the Four Seasons Hotel in Sultanahmet.
The UNESCO team will be briefed on the Marmaray Project to connect the İstanbul strait’s Asian and European sides with a railway tunnel slated for completion in 2011; and a planned third bridge over the Bosporus. They will also be briefed about a museum to host artifacts found during the Marmaray Project infrastructure work, he said.
Among projects under scrutiny by the team are the controversial Salıpazarı-Karaköy Cruise Port Complex, commonly known as Galataport, and the Dubai Towers project, which was derailed by project opponents after Sama Dubai won the $1.1 billion bid for the municipal land on which the towers were to be built.
Other sites the UNESCO team will inspect include sixth century Ayasofya (Hagia Sophia), the Sultanahmet Mosque, the Fener-Balat area, Tekfur Palace and the Sultanahmet Archeological Park site.
“We have nearly reached the end of the two-year period that was given to İstanbul to prevent further erosion of its heritage. In a World Heritage Center meeting in June in Canada, they will reach a conclusion on whether or not to move Istanbul’s historical sites to the endangered areas list or not. We have been trying to do everything we can according to the [UNESCO] progress report in this period,” Taşbaşı said.
He said that in line with the progress report they halted restoration of the old city walls because it was not being done properly. Two international symposiums have been conducted to enable the restoration’s correct continuance, he added. New work has also been started connected to the wall restoration by Zeynep Ahunbay, a representative of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), and six historical wooden houses in the old city have been restored, Taşbaşı said.
He also said Galataport’s height would be limited so as not to overshadow the historic Galata Tower in the old city.
Taşbaşı concluded by saying that the municipal government, civilian organizations and local administrations had been working hand-in-hand to meet the progress report’s demands and that he therefore did not expect the listed İstanbul sites would be placed on the endangered list.
Turkey signed the World Heritage Convention in 1983 and through the work carried out under the responsibility of the General Directorate for the Preservation of Cultural and Natural Heritage has so far registered nine locations on the World Heritage List. Among these is İstanbul, which has also been named a “2010 European Capital of Culture” along with the German town of Essen and Hungarian city of Pecs.
Benzer Haberler 
National
