Istanbul issues S.O.S. to avoid UNESCO rebuke

Following a series municipal developments that have endangered Istanbul’s cultural heritage, UNESCO has threatened to de-list the city if it does not rapidly implement a number of amendments to reverse its current policies. While some academics say Istanbul is no longer able to look after itself, others argue the world body has abandoned the metropolis.

With Istanbul in danger of being removed from UNESCO’s list of world heritage sites, a local nongovernmental organization has begun a campaign to ensure the city does not lose its special status.

The World Heritage Committee has given the city a list of amendments it must implement in order to protect the cultural heritage of the city ahead of its 34th annual meeting, which will take place from July 25 to Aug. 3 in Brazil. If the required amendments are not fulfilled by the time the annual meeting starts within the next three weeks, then the committee will consider Istanbul an endangered cultural heritage site.

In response to the threat of de-listing, the Istanbul Urban Movement has begun a signature campaign at http://istanbulsos.wordpress.com, to continue with various activities to create social awareness in the hopes of preventing a UNESCO verdict against Istanbul.

The UNESCO committee is asking for amendments on the metro bridge construction over the Golden Horn, the renovation of Istanbul’s city walls, the Marmaray project, an undersea rail tunnel that will link the European and Anatolian sides of the city, a protection plan for the traditional wooden houses of Istanbul and a master plan to relieve the traffic burden on the historical peninsula.

The civil society group held a meeting at the Mimar Sinan University Architecture Faculty on Monday and discussed its action plan.


Decision draws ire of academics

Speaking at the meeting, Zeynep Ahunbay, a professor at the renovation department of Istanbul Technical University’s Architecture Faculty, said the threat was not new but has been constant since 2004.

“UNESCO warned Turkey about the evident risks and asked it to pay attention to the preservation of universal wealth in Istanbul,” she said. “However, what has been done in the name of amelioration is way beneath what’s necessary.”  

Ahunbay said UNESCO asked the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality last year to revise its plans about the Golden Horn metro bridge and to show diligence to prevent the detrimental effects on the historical peninsula’s landscape.

“UNESCO’s permission and opinion is asked for projects that might possibly affect world heritage areas,” Ahunbay said. “For the Golden Horn metro bridge, this procedure was skipped, and there has not been a serious effort to fix the situation, even after UNESCO learned about it.”  

Ahunbay said the stanchions for the bridge were reportedly shortened to 55 meters from 65 in line with the warnings, “but, in the end, UNESCO said as long as the construction continues, Istanbul will be removed from the World Heritage List in 2011.”

Speaking to the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review about the recent developments, Murat Belge, an English literature professor at Istanbul Bilgi University and an author of many books about historical Istanbul, said the risk has long lingered over Istanbul like the sword of Damocles.

He also said the UNESCO threat was not the first warning but probably the last.

Quoting Turgut Cansever, the famous late architect who won many awards and had spoken on a previous panel about the same issue, Belge likened UNESCO’s position to social services.

“When parents abuse their children in some way or cannot take care of them due to, say, financial issues, social services takes the children away from them,” he said. “Similarly, we cannot take care of Istanbul, and they are invalidating our rights to the city.”

Belge said Istanbul’s presence on the list is a result of a mutual agreement which stipulates “that if one party is not following the terms of the agreement, the other party has the right to annul the agreement altogether.”

The academic also said the officials wanted this to happen, because if Istanbul is finally removed from the list, they would be free to act in whatever fashion they chose.

“That is what they are after,” Belge said. “And I have no hope that we will be able to prevent it from happening.”


‘Istanbul abandoned’

On the other hand, İlber Ortaylı, a prominent historian and the head of Topkapı Museum, blamed UNESCO for leaving Istanbul alone in its degradation.

“Would you call an antique vase worthless just because your worthless cousin inherited it from your great grandmother?” Ortaylı asked.

The historian said he found the likely decision “extremely foolish.” “Istanbul is being tarnished and destroyed. We do not want this to happen, either. We are trying everything we can to prevent it from happening. They are leaving us alone rather than giving us better support.”

Ortaylı blamed UNESCO for applying double standards, referring to the damage caused in Vietnam and Iraq during the wars waged by the U.S., saying: “No sanctions were applied on them. UNESCO is hypocritical in its punishment mechanism.”

UNESCO has further represented no material benefits for Turkey and functions only as a threat mechanism, he said. “Now that mechanism is out of service as well.”

If historical wealth belonging to all of humanity cannot be protected by its inhabitants due to a lack of funds or a lack of awareness, the residents should be given more support rather than being abandoned, according to Ortaylı.

“UNESCO is to be condemned as well in what is going to happen to Istanbul in the future,” the historian said.

In a previous article concerning the possible UNESCO decision published in the Daily News on June 25, Francesco Bandarin, the director of UNESCO’s World Heritage Center was quoted as saying: “We will wait and see. The decision will be public soon.”


/Hurriyet Daily News/